LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California. 

Received    ^    \f.cJ^Q^,  •  ^'^'^^0.  • 

Accession  No. ^  J  '^  /  3      .    CLus  No. 


THE  HISTORY 


OF 


Compulsory  Education 


IK 


NEW  ENGLAND 


A  Dissertation  pj-esented  to  the    Faculty  of  Arts,   Literature,   and 

Science  of  the    University  of  Chicago^   i?i   Candidacy 

for  the  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy 


BY 

JOHN   WILLIAM    PERRIN,   A.M. 


MEADVILLE,  PENN'A 
1896 


V 


O'' 


^K 


Copyright,  1S96, 
By  John  William  Pkrrin. 


739/^ 


Printed  and  Bound  by  Flood  &  Vincent,  The  Chautauqua-Century  Press,  Meadville,  Pa. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Introductory  :  The  Origin  of  Modern  Compulsory 
Education,  and  the  Progress  of  Universal  Edu- 
cation AND  THE  Principle  of  Compulsion  in  the 
Sixteenth   Century 5 

CHAPTER  n. 

The  Principle  of  Compulsion  in  New  England.    1620- 

1800 17 

chapter  hi. 

Indirect  Compulsion  :  The  Factory  Laws  of  Massa- 
chusetts AND   Connecticut 33 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Truancy  Problem  in  Massachusetts,    i 845-1 890  .      46 

CHAPTER  V. 
The   General   Compulsory    Laws    of    New    England. 

1852-1890 57 


THE  HISTORY  OF  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 
IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

CHAPTER  I. 

Introductory  :   The  Origin  of  Modern  Compulsory  Edu- 
cation, AND  the  Progress  of  Universal  Education 
and  the  Principle  of  Compulsion  in  the 
Sixteenth    Century. 

Modern  compulsory  education  has  its  origin  in  the  Reforma- 
tion.* The  making  of  man  responsible  for  the  religious  "faith 
that  is  within  him"  put  upon  each  one  the  obligation  of  reading 
and  understanding  the  Bible  for  himself.  It  made  the  education  of 
the  people,  among  all  branches  of  the  Protestant  faith,  a  religious 
duty  to  be  as  carefully  and  conscientiously  performed  as  any  other 
duty  contained  in  the  religious  creed  they  had  accepted.  This 
explains  the  great  attention  that  Luther  and  Calvin,  the  chief 
exponents  of  the  Protestant  reform,  gave  to  the  establishment  of 
schools  for  the  people.  During  the  remainder  of  Luther's  life  after 
his  revolt  from  Rome,  he  advocated  universal  education  and  urged 
the  establishment  of  schools  for  the  masses.  While  he  believed 
"the  church  is  the  mother  of  the  school,"  he  urged  the  establish- 


*  In  the  sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  James  IV.  of  Scotland  (1494),  a  statute  ordered  all 
barons  and  freeholders  to  put  their  sons  and  heirs  at  school  "  from  six  or  nine  years  of  age 
and  keep  them  there  until  they  should  have  perfect  Latin  under  a  penalty  of  ^20.''  After 
that  they  were  to  study  Philosophy  and  Law  for  three  years.  This  statute  was  not  universal 
in  its  application  ;  it  applied  only  to  the  upper  classes.  In  this  respect  it  dift'ers  from  present 
day  legislation  on  this  subject.  Macpherson's  "Annals  of  Commerce,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  7.  See 
also,  "  Historical  Survey  of  Education  in  Scotland  Prior  to  the  Establishment  of  the  Present 
System,"  in  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  18S9-90,  Vol.  L,  p.  217. 


6  The  History  of  Conipu/sory  Edit  rat  ion 

ment  and  support  of  schools  by  municipalities.  In  1524,  in  an 
address  on  this  subject  to  the  mayors  and  aldermen  of  Germany  he 
says  :  ' '  Dear  rulers,  if  we  must  spend  so  much  yearly  upon 
artillery,  roads,  bridges,  dykes,  and  innumerable  other  things  of 
the  same  kind,  in  order  that  a  city  may  have  temporal  peace  and 
tranquillity,  why  should  we  not  spend  as  much  on  the  poor,  needy 
youth,  that  we  may  support  an  able  man  or  two  for  school- 
master?"* He  not  only  urged  the  establishment  of  schools  by 
every  city  and  \'illage  for  the  sake  of  the  mental  and  moral  train- 
ing of  the  youth,  but  he  urged  such  a  course  as  a  duty  the 
municipality  owed  to  itself.  He  believed  that  the  safety,  strength, 
and  perpetuity  of  municipalities  depended  more  on  the  schools 
they  established  than  on  their  armies  and  fortifications.  In  the 
address  which  has  just  been  quoted  he  emphasizes  this  belief  in  no 
uncertain  language.  "Therefore  it  is  becoming,"  he  says,  "for 
the  council  and  the  magistrates  to  have  the  greatest  care  and 
diligence  for  the  youth.  For  since  the  good,  the  honor,  the  life, 
and  the  activity  of  a  great  city  is  committed  to  their  faithful  hands, 
they  do  not  act  justly  before  God  and  the  world  when  they  do  not 
seek  the  prosperity  and  improvement  of  the  city  with  all  their 
power,  night  and  day.  Now  a  city's  prosperity  lies  not  alone 
in  accumulating  great  treasures,  producing  strong  walls,  beautiful 
houses,  and  munitions  of  war  ;  indeed  where  there  is  much  of  this, 
and  reckless  fools  come  into  power,  it  is  so  much  the  worse,  and  of 
greater  detriment  to  the  city.  But  this  is  the  best  and  richest 
increase,  prosperity,  and  strength  of  the  city,  that  it  has  many 
polished,  learned,  judicious,  honorable,  and  well-bred  citizens  ; 
who  when  they  have  been  able  to  accumulate  treasures  and  great 

*  An  die  Biiigeniieistef  iiiid  Ratlislieneii  aller  Sladte  Deutsclilaiids,  dasz  sie  christliclie 
Schuleii  aufricliteii  mid  halten  solleii. 

"  Liebe  Herieii,  musz  man  jahrlich  so  viel  wendeu  an  Biichseii,  Wege,  Stege,  Damme,  und 
dergleichen  unzaliHge  Stiicke  niehr,  damit  eine  Stadt  zeitlichen  Frieden  und  Gemach  habe ; 
vvarum  sollte  man  nicht  vielmehr  doch  auch  so  viel  wenden  an  die  diirstige  arnie  Jugend,  dasz 
man  eineni  geschickten  Mann  oder  zwei  zu  Schulmeistern  hielte?  " — Dr.  Martin  Luther's  re- 
formatorischc  Schriften  von  Dr.  Karl  Zhumermann  (Darmstadt,  1S4/),  Ziveiter  Band, 
Seite  517. 


In  New  England.  7 

wealth  may  keep  and  use  them  rightly."*  Again,  in  a  letter  to 
John  the  Constant,  who  had  succeeded  his  brother  Frederick  the 
Wise  as  elector  in  1525,  he  says  :  "Where  there  is  a  city  which  has 
the  ability,  your  electoral  grace  has  the  power  to  compel  [the 
people]  to  support  schools,  pulpits,  and  parishes.  If  they  will  not 
do  it  for  their  salvation,  then  consider  that  your  electoral  grace,  as 
highest  guardian  of  the  youth  and  of  all  others  needing  super- 
vision, shall  compel  them  to  do  so,  just  as  they  are  compelled 
to  give  and  render  services  toward  bridges,  paths,  and  roads,  or 
other  matters  pertaining  to  the  public  interest."'}" 

His  plans  for  universal  education  did  not  end  with  the  establish- 
ment and  support  of  schools  by  municipalities.  In  his  sermon  on 
the  "  Duty  of  Sending  Children  to  School,"  he  maintains  that  it  is 
both  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the  state  to  enact  laws  compelling 
parents  to  send  their  children  to  school.  "I  maintain,"  he  says, 
' '  that  the  civil  authorities  are  under  obligations  to  compel  the 
people  to  send  their  children  to  school.  ...  If  the  govern- 
ment can  compel  such  citizens  as  are  fit  for  military  service  to  bear 
spear  and  rifle,  to  mount  ramparts,  and  perform  other  martial 
duties  in  time  of  war  ;  how  much  more  has  it  a  right  to  compel  the 
people  to  send  their  children  to  school,  because  in  this  case  we  are 


*  "  Daruni  will  es  hier  deni  Ralh  und  der  Obrigkeit  gebulueii,  die  allergroszte  Sorge  und 
Fleisz  auf  dasjunge  \'olk  zu  habeii.  Denn  well  der  ganzen  Stadt  Gut,  Elire,  Leib,  und  Lebeu 
ihueii  zu  treuer  Hand  befohlen  ist,  so  tliaten  sie  nicht  rechtlich  vor  Gott  und  der  Welt,  so  sie 
der  Stadt  Gedeihen  und  Besserung  nicht  suchten  niit  allem  Vermogen  Tag  und  Nacht.  Nun 
liegt  einer  Stadt  Gedeihen  nicht  allein  darin,  dasz  man  grosze  Schatze  sammle,  feste  Mauern, 
schone  Hauser,  viele  Biichsen  und  Harnishe  zeuge ;  ja,  wo  desz  viel  ist  und  toUe  Narren  da- 
ruber  komnien,  ist  so  viel  desto  arger  und  desto  groszern  Schade  derselben  Stadt,  sondern 
das  ist  einer  Stadt  bestes  und  aller  reichstes  Gedeihen,  Heil  und  Kraft,  dasz  sie  ist  so  viel 
feiner,  gelehrter,  verniinftiger,  ehrbarer,  wohlgezogener  Burger  hat,  die  konnen  darnach 
wohl  Schatze  und  alles  Gut  sanimeln,  halten  und  recht  brauchen." — Ibid.,  Seite 521. 

t"Wo  eine  Stadt  oder  Dorf  ist,  die  des  Verniogens  sind,  hat  G.  E.  F.  G.  Macht  sie  zu 
zwingen,  dasz  sie  Schulen,  Predigtstiihle,  Pfarren  halten.  Wollen  sie  es  nicht  zu  ihrer  Selig- 
keit  thun,  noch  bedenken,  so  ist  G.  E.  F.  G.  da,  als  oberster  Vormund  der  Jugend  und  Aller 
die  es  bediirfen,  und  soil  sie  mit  Gewalt  dazu  halten,  daszu  sie  es  thun  miissen  ;  gleich  als 
wenn  man  sie  mit  Gewalt  zwingt,  daszu  sie  zur  Briicken,  Steg,  und  Weg,  oder  sonf.  iulalliger 
Landesnoth  geben  und  dienen." — Schreiben  an  den  Kiirfilrsten  Johannes,  22st'  t  November, 
1326.     Zimmermann,  Driller  Band,  Seile  igs- 


8  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

warring  with  the  devil,   whose  object  it  is  secretly  to  exhaust  our 
cities  and  principalities  of  their  strong  men."* 

Besides  the  establishment  of  schools,  he  urged  the  formation  of 
libraries.  "  Finally,"  he  says,  "it  is  well  for  all  those,  who  have 
so  much  love  and  desire,  that  schools  and  studies  be  established, 
and  sustained  in  Germany,  to  keep  in  mind  that  we  must  spare  no 
trouble  nor  expense  to  furnish  good  libraries,  especially  in  great 
cities,  where  such  are  possible.  For  if  the  Gospel  and  all  the  arts 
are  to  remain,  they  must  indeed  be  enclosed  and  bound  up  in 
books  and  writings,  "f  These  libraries  were  not  to  include  the 
writings  of  the  school-men  and  the  church  fathers  merely,  but  also 
the  works  of  every  great  writer,  whether  pagan  or  Christian. 
Tk  The  labors  of  Luther  in  behalf  of  universal  education  bore  much 
good  fruit  from  their  beginning.  In  1524  Duke  John  of  Gotha 
granted  a  petition  of  the  council,  the  parish,  the  dean,  and  the 
court,  declaring  for  the  Reformation.  This  was  on  Tuesday  of 
Whitsuntide,  and  in  August  of  the  same  year  Frederick  Myconius, 
Luther's  intimate  friend,  was  made  evangelical  minister  and  super- 
intendent of  the  duchy.  In  this  year  appeared  Luther's  address  to 
the  mayors  and  aldermen  of  Germany.  Myconius  considered  it 
one  of  his  principal  duties  to  care  for  the  schools.  He  fused  those 
already  in  existence  in  Gotha  into  one,  and  established  the  new 
school  thus  formed  in  the  convent  of  the  Augustinians.  J  This  was 
no  easy  task.      Myconius  himself  says,  "Schools  and  studies  were 


*  This  sermon  is  not  given  in  the  edition  of  Luther's  writings  that  I  have  used.  'l"lie 
quotation  is  taken  from  "Luther  on  Education,"  by  F.  V.  N.  Painter,  A.M.  (Philadelphia, 
1889),  p.  269. 

t"  Zum  letzten  ist  auch  das  wohl  zu  bedenken  alien  denjenigen,  so  Liebe  und  Lust  haben, 
dasz  solche  Schulen  und  Sprachen  in  deutschen  Laiidern  aufgerichtet  und  erhalten  werden, 
dasz  man  Fleisz  und  Kosten  nicht  spare,  gute  Libereien  und  Biicherhauser,  sonderlich  in  den 
groszten  Stadten,  die  solches  wohl  vermogen,  zu  verschaffen.  Denn  so  das  Evangelium  und 
allerlei  Kunst  soil  bleiben,  musz  je  in  Biicher  und  Schriften  verfasset  und  angebuiulen  sein." — 
Zimniermanti ,  Zweiter  Band,  Seite  sj6, 

X  Dr.  Henry  Barnard  in  speaking  of  this  school  calls  Myconius  "  the  founder  of  the  gym- 
nasium." See  "  Systems,  Institutions,  and  Statistics  of  Public  Instruction  in  Different 
Countries,"  by  Henry  Barnard,  LL.  D.  (New  York,  1S72),  Part  I.,  "  P'urope — German  States," 
P-  575- 


In  Nexv  England.  9 

utterly  despised  by  the  mob,  and  it  would  be  much  easier  to  find 
ten  ready  to  storm  and  destroy  a  school,  than  one  or  two  willing  to 
help  in  building  one."*  In  speaking  further  of  the  magnitude 
of  his  labors  he  says:  "Nobody  would  believe  what  an  immense 
amount  of  labor  is  required  to  build  a  new  house  with  warped  and 
rotten  wood.  Oh,  how  long  have  we  been  compelled  to  work 
against  the  stream  and  to  fetch  exerything  from  out  of  the  fire. 
Now,  God  help  us,  that  it  may  l)e  preserved  to  our  posterity."  f 
When  he  had  completed  the  organization  of  the  town  schools,  he 
placed  a  rector,  M.  Monerus,  at  their  head.  Then  he  turned 
his  attention  to  the  establishment  of  elementary  schools.  This  too 
was  due  to  Luther's  influence.  In  1527  Luther  had  written  a 
letter  to  the  ministers  asking  "  that  they  should  read  the  catechism 
to  the  children  and  servants  every  Sunday  afternoon  at  church,  and 
hear  them  recite."  It  was  comparatively  easy  for  the  ministers  of 
the  towns  to  satisfy  these  demands.  But  in  the  country  where  they 
had  in  charge  numerous  chapels  scattered  over  a  wide  territory, 
they  were  able  to  give  but  little  attention  to  the  young.  To  over- 
come this  difficulty  and  to  comply  with  Luther's  wishes,  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  minister  was  found  in  his  clerk  or  sacristan.  In  this 
appointment  of  the  minister's  clerk  to  take  charge  of  the  education 
of  the  youth,  we  have  the  beginning  of  the  common  schools  in 
Gotha. 

In  Thuringia,  also,  Luther's  labors  brought  speedy  and  desired 
results.  Here  the  propagandist  of  universal  education  was  Philip 
Melancthon,J  as  in  Gptha  it  had  been  Myconius.  Like  Myconius, 
Melancthon  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  great  reformer.  He  was 
a  man  of  great  learning  and  of  much  mental  acuteness.  In  1527, 
through  the  influence  of  Luther,  John  the  Constant  appointed  him 
to  visit  and  examine  the  schools  of  Thuringia.      He  traversed  the 


*  Ibid. 

^ Ibid.     Quoted  there  from  Myconius'  "  History  of  tlie  Relornialion,"  p.  54. 
J  His   name  was  originally  Sclnvarzerd   (black  earth),  of  which  Melancthon   is   a  Greek 
translation. 


lo  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

whole  of  this  territory  with  Myconius  and  Justin  Jonas.  The 
results  of  his  investigations  were  embodied  in  his  "  Book  of  Visita- 
tion," which  was  published  in  the  following  year  by  the  order  of 
the  elector.  These  labors  of  Melancthon  had  much  significance  in 
the  further  development  of  the  educational  ideas  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. Out  of  them  grew  the  "Saxony  School-Plan,"  which  after- 
wards became  the  educational  system  of  most  of  the  Protestant 
states  of  Germany.  It  demanded  of  the  pastors  that  they  should 
admonish  the  people  of  their  charge  on  the  necessity  of  sending 
their  children  to  school  that  they  might  be  trained  "  to  teach  sound 
doctrine  in  the  church,  and  to  serve  the  state  in  a  wise  and  able 
manner. ' ' 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  plan  of  Melancthon  was  based 
on  one  prepared  by  Luther  four  years  earlier.  In  1524  Luther 
wrote  to  Spalatin  saying,  ' '  I  send  you  my  sketch  of  the  school  as 
it  should  be,  that  you  may  lay  it  before  the  elector  ;  and  though  I 
do  not  expect  that  much  heed  will  be  given  to  it,  yet  I  must 
venture,  and  leave  the  issue  with  God."*  Melancthon  himself  says 
in  a  letter  to  Camerarius  on  the  subject  of  his  "  Book  of  Visitation," 
"  You  will  see  that  I  have  written  nothing  more  than  what  Luther 
has  prompted."  | 

The  influence  of  Melancthon' s  labors  did  not  end  with  the  organ- 
ization of  schools  under  the  Saxony  plan.  The  ' '  Book  of  Visita- 
tion ' '  was  the  means  of  the  establishment  of  an  ' '  Evangelical 
Church  System"  which  in  matters  of  ecclesiastical  doctrine  and 
government  asserted  its  own  authority  independently  of  the 
papacy. % 

One  of  the  most  important  laws  of  this  century  was  that  given  by 


*"  Luther's  Views  of  Education  and  Schools."  From  tlie  German  of  Karl  von  Raunier. 
BArna.r:A's  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  IV.  (1S58),  p.  442. 

^ Ibid.  In  a  foot-note  Von  Raumer  says,  "Luther's  plan,  above  referred  to,  I  ha\e  never 
seen,  nor  is  it,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  on  record.  That  Melancthon,  however,  essentially 
agrees  with  it  we  have  abundant  cause  to  conclude." 

t  Barnard's  "Systems,  Institutions,  and  Statistics  of  Public  Instruction  in  Different 
Countries,"  Part  I.,  "  Europe — German  States,"  p.  535. 


/;/  Nczv  Eiio/aiid.  1 1 

Duke  Christopher  of  Wiirtemberg  in  1599.  In  tliat  year  he  gave 
the  first  permanent  regulations  for  the  education  of  the  common 
people.  Universal  education  was  not  only  provided  for,  but 
insisted  upon.  Pastors  were  required  to  admonish  the  parents  of 
their  congregations  twice  each  year  upon  the  dut\'  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  sending  their  children  to  school.  Besides  this,  the 
schoolmasters  were  required  to  keep  a  register  of  all  the  boys  in 
the  district  according  to  the  classes  to  which  they  belonged.  At 
the  close  of  each  recitation  they  were  required  to  call  this  roll,  and 
if  the  absentees  were  not  able  to  give  satisfactory  excuses  ' '  they 
were  fined  according  to  their  deserts."  These  provisions  were 
looked  upon  with  favor  by  other  districts  of  Germany,  and  in  some 
instances  laws  of  a  similar  nature  were  passed.-'^  Nearly  half  a 
century  before  these  provisions  for  the  education  of  the  common 
people  were  made,  secondary  schools  were  established  throughout 
the  duchy  by  the  authority  of  the  state. t  May  15,  15^,  Duke 
Christopher  issued  what  is  called  the  "Grand  Ecclesiastical  Order. " 
The  purpose  of  this  order  as  stated  in  the  preamble  was  ' '  to  carry 
youths  from  the  elements  through  successive  grades  to  the  degree 
of  culture  demanded  for  offices  in  the  church  and  in  the  state. ";{; 
This  order  received  the  sanction  of  the  Diet  in  1565,  and  with  some 
modifications  remained  in  force  till  1803.  As  a  result  of  this  order, 
there  were  in  Wiirtemberg,  in  1607,  forty-seven  Latin  schools 
i^Lateinische  Stadt-Schulen)  and  eighteen  cloister  schools  in  opera- 
tion. || 

Wherever  the  Reformation  spread,  plans  for  unixersal  education 
accompanied   it.       In    1542   the    organization   of   the    ecclesiastical 

*  Ibid.,  p.  564.  See  also  article  on  "  Conipulsor\-  Education,"  by  Prof.  E.  J.  James  in  Lalor's 
"  Cyclopasdia  of  Political  Science,  Political  Economy  and  the  Political  History  of  the  United 
States,"  Vol.  II. 

t  The  same  is  true  of  other  parts  of  Germany.  According  to  Mr.  George  H.  Martin,  "  A 
school  law  was  adopted  and  schools  opened  in  Brandenburg  before  1540 ;  in  Wittenberg 
in  1559;  in  Saxony  in  1560;  in  Hesse  in  1565."  "The  Evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Public 
School  System,"  by  George  H.  Martin,  A.  M.  (New  York,  1S94),  p.  20. 

X  Barnard,  p.  709. 

II  Ibid.,  p.  710. 


12  The  Histo)-}'  of  Conipiilso)y  Education 

state  of  (ienex'a  was  begun.  In  the  ortlinances  gi\en  by  Calvin  on 
January  2  of  that  year,  four  orders  of  officers  are  named — pastors, 
teachers,  elders,  and  deacons. -'^  Provisions  were  made  for  the 
instruction  of  the  people  and  the  training  of  the  children.  Educa- 
tion was  made  universal,  and  so  far  as  Calvin  was  able  to  realize  his 
plans  in  this  direction  it  was  obligatory.!/ 

In  1560  the  Protestants  of  France  took  up  the  cause  of  universal 
education.  In  that  year  the  States-General  of  Orleans  sent  to  the 
king  the  following  memorial  :  "May  it  please  the  king  to  levy 
a  contribution  upon  the  church  revenues  for  the  reasonable  support 
of  teachers  and  men  of  learning  in  every  city  and  village  for  the 
instruction  of  the  needy  youth  of  the  country  ;  and  let  all  parents 
be  required,  under  penalty  of  a  fine,  to  send  their  children  to 
school,  and  let  them  be  constrained  to  observe  this  law  by  the  lords 
and  ordinary  magistrates."  %  Reasonable  and  just  as  were  these 
recommendations,  they  did  not  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  king. 
Eleven  years  later  on  the  recommendation  of  the  queen,  Jeanne 
d'Albret,  the  Estates  of  Navarre  passed  a  law  making  primary 
instruction  compulsory.  Probably  this  was  borrowed  from  Geneva. 
Queen  Jeanne  was  a  zealous  Calvinist,  and  Cahin  himself  wrote  to 
her  at  times  concerning  the  affairs  of  her  government. 

What  Calvin  did  for  education  in  Geneva,  John  Knox  attempted 
to  do  in  Scotland.  ' '  The  First  Book  of  Discipline,  prepared 
under  Knox's  direction  in  1560,  ordained  that  every  several  kirk 
should  have  one  schoolmaster  appointed,  able  to  teach  grammar 
and  the  Latin  tongue  ;  this  if  the  town  is  of  any  reputation.  In  the 
upland  towns  the  minister  is  to  take  care  of  the  children  and 
instruct  them  in  the  first  rudiments  and  in  the   catechism.  "11     It 


*  "  The  Period  of  the  Refonnatiou,  1517-164S."  by  Liidwig  Haiisser  (New  York,  1873),  p.  250. 
"  History  of  the  Reformation,"  by  George  P.  Fisher,  D.D.  (New  York,  1873),  p.  217. 

t  "  Education  in  the  United  States,"  by  Richard  G.  Boone  (New  York,  1889),  p.  6. 

J"  The  History  of  Pedagogy,"  by  Gabriel  Conipayre.  Translation  by  W.  H.  Pa\ne,  A.M. 
(Boston,  1S86),  p.  120. 

II  Martin,  p.  20.  Cited  there  from  the  Works  of  John  Knox,  Laing  (Edinburgh,  1S4S),  Vol. 
II.,  p.  183.  •* 


/;/  A^Tf-  Kiiiiiami.  13 

seems  that  but  little  if  any  assistance  was  given  to  Knox  by  the 
civil  authorities  in  his  endeavors  to  establish  schools.  Not  till 
1633  was  there  a  legal  enactment  for  the  establishment  of  schools. 
In  that  year  it  was  ordained  by  parliamentary  legislation  "that  a 
school  should  be  established  in  every  parish,  and  that  the  lands  be 
assessed  for  that  purpose."* 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  Protestant  Holland 
attained  a  higher  standard  of  education  for  the  masses  than  had 
been  realized  elsewhere.  In  speaking  of  the  institutions  of 
Antwerp,  Motley  says,  "The  schools  were  excellent  and  cheap. 
It  was  difficult  to  find  a  child  of  sufficient  age  who  could  not  read, 
write,  and  speak  at  least  two  languages."!"  Again  he  says:  "  The 
standard  of  culture  in  those  flourishing  cities  was  elevated,  com- 
pared with  that  observed  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  The  children 
of  the  wealthier  classes  enjoyed  great  facilities  for  education  in  all 
the  great  capitals.  The  classics,  music,  and  the  modern  lan- 
guages, particularly  the  French,  were  universally  cultivated.  Nor 
was  intellectual  cultivation  confined  to  the  higher  orders.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  diffused  to  a  remarkable  degree  among  the  hard- 
working artisans  and  handicraftsmen  of  the  great  cities."  J 

The  progress  of  the  Reformation  brought  with  it  greater  zeal  for 
the  education  of  the  masses,  and  before  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  there  had  been  established  a  system  of  schools  fostered  by 
the  state.      A  resolution  was  passed  in  the  first  Synod  of  Dort  in 

*  Ibid.,  p.  21.     Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1889-90,  Vol.  I.,  p.  221. 

t  "  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,"  by  John  Lothrop  Motley  (New  York,  1875),  Vol.  I., 
p.  84. 

X  /bid.,  p.  26.  Prof.  Ludwig  Haiisser  says  :"  Besides  the  universities,  tliere  were  every- 
where excellent  schools,  which  had  more  thoroughly  imbibed  the  modern  humanistic  spirit 
than  any  others,  and  that  culture  extended  even  among  the  people.  '  There  was  no  country,' 
says  a  contemporary  historian,  '  where  learning  and  culture  prevailed  so  widely  as  among 
us  ;  even  in  the  Frisian  fishermen's  huts  you  might  find  people  who  could  not  only  read  and 
write,  but  discussed  scriptural  interpretations  as  if  they  were  scholars.'  Even  if  this  is  an 
exaggeration,  it  is  well  known  that  amidst  their  material  prosperity  a  real  desire  for  mental 
culture  had  spread  among  the  lowest  classes  of  the  people.  Friends  and  foes  bear  witness 
that  in  these  countries  the  conditions  of  material  and  mental  prosperity  were  combined  to  a 
rare  extent." — The  Period  of  the  Reformalion,  p.  288.  See  also,  "History  of  the  Reforma- 
tion," by  George  P.  Fisher,  pp.  285-6. 


14  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

1574  urging  "the  servants  of  the  church"  to  obtain  permission 
from  the  magistrates  to  appoint  schoolmasters  in  every  locality.* 
A  more  advanced  step  was  taken  by  Friesland  in  1582.  There  it 
was  decreed  by  the  Estates  that  ' '  the  inhabitants  of  towns  and 
villages  should  within  the  space  of  six  weeks  provide  good  and 
able  Reformed  schools-masters,  and  those  who  neglected  so  to  do 
would  be  compelled  to  accept  the  instructors  appointed  for  them.""f 
In  the  year  following  a  law  was  passed  in  Zealand  insisting  upon 
education  because  "it  is  the  foundation  of  the  commonwealth. "| 
In  15S6  the  Synod  attempted  to  make  schools  universal.  Then  it 
was  ordered  "that  the  consistories  or  assemblies  of  ministers  and 
elders  of  the  church  should  take  care  that  schools  should  be  every- 
where provided  with  good  schoolmasters  to  instruct  the  children  of 
all  classes  of  persons  in  reading,  writing,  rhetoric,  and  the  liberal 
arts  as  well  as  in  the  doctrines  of  religion  and  the  catechism  of  the 
church. "II  By  1609,  the  year  in  which  the  Puritans  took  up  their 
residence  in  Leyden,  schools  for  the  people  had  become  municipal 
institutions  which  were  paid  for  as  were  other  expenses  of  the 
municipalities.  § 

In  England  the  state  did  but  little  for  the  cause  of  universal 
education  during  this  period.  The  magnificent  results  achieved 
by  the  labors  of  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  other  reformers  of 
Protestant  Germany  are  in  marked  contrast  with  those  accom- 
plished by  the  labors  of  Erasmus,  Colet,  and  More  in  England. 
Almost  nothing  was  accomplished  during  the  first  half  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  the 
Oxford  reformers  had  hoped  and  looked  for  a  reawakening  of  the 
people  through  schools  established  for  them.      But  Henry  did  but 


*  "  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England,  and  America,"  by  Douglas  Campbell  (New  Vork, 
1892),  Vol.  II.,  p.  340. 

^Ibid. 

X  Boone,  p.  3. 

II  Martin,  p.  20. 

§  Campbell.Vol.  II.,  p.  342.  See  also  article  by  A.  S.  Draper  in  Educational  Review  (New- 
York),  for  April,  1892. 


/;/  New  England.  15 

little  toward  establishing-  schools.  During-  his  entire  reign  of 
thirty-six  years,  he  founded  but  ten  grammar  schools.  Twenty- 
seven  were  established  by  Edward  VI.,  and  thirty  between  Mary 
and  Elizabeth.*  When  the  Reformation  was  considerably  ad- 
vanced, Cranmer  formulated  a  scheme  for  the  founding  of  schools 
of  every  grade  in  connection  with  new  cathedrals  which  he  hoped 
would  be  established.  It  was  a  part  of  his  plan  to  use  the  revenues 
from  the  monasteries  for  this  purpose.  But  the  spoils  of  the 
monasteries  went  into  other  hands,  and  his  plans  were  far  from 
realized,  t  The  Reformation  and  that  great  intellectual  movement 
which  accompanied  it,  both  as  cause  and  as  effect,  gave  through 
private  charity  the  facilities  for  education  which  the  state  had 
failed  to  provide.  In  all,  two  hundred  and  fifty  grammar  schools 
were  established  by  the  state  and  private  donations  during  the 
period  of  the  Reformation.  But  these  schools  did  not  furnish  the 
primary  instruction  which  the  people  needed.  They  were  higher 
schools  and  corresponded  to  the  Latcinische  Stadt-Schulen  estab- 
lished by  Duke  Christopher  in  Wurtemberg.  Probably  these 
schools  accomplished  the  object  which  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
had  in  view  when  they  established  them.  They  undoubtedly  did  if 
that  object  was  the  furnishing  of  the  means  of  education  beyond 
primary  instruction  to  the  middle  classes.  But  if  they  also  had  in 
view  provisions  for  the  intellectual  training  of  the  poor,  then  in  that 
respect  they  must  have  failed.  What  this  class  needed  was 
primary  instruction,  and  the  Reformation  was  far  advanced  before 
schools  giving  such  instruction  were  established,  and  then  only  by 
private  benefice.  J 

Such  was  the  origin  of  modern  compulsory  education,  and  such 
the  progress  that  universal  education  and  the  principle  of  compul- 

*  "  The  State  in  its  Relation  to  Education,"  by  Henry  Crail:,  M.A.,  LL.D.  (London,  18S4). 

t  For  an  account  of  the  destruction  of  the  monasteries  see  "  The  Early  Tudors,"  by  Rev. 
C.  E.  Moberly,  A.M.  (New  Yoik,  1889),  pp.  193-199.  See  also  "  History  of  the  English 
People,"  by  John  Richard  Green,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  158  and  181. 

X  Craik,  p.  6. 


1 6         History  of  Compulsory  Education  in  New  England. 

sion  had  made  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  great 
movement  which  began  with  Luther's  breaking  the  ecclesiastical 
shackles  which  Rome  had  placed  on  the  Christian  world  had  trans- 
ferred from  the  church  to  the  state  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
instruction  of  the  youth.  *  That  principle  maintained  so  strenu- 
ously by  Luther,  that  the  city  or  state  for  its  own  safety  must 
establish  schools  for  all  the  people,  and  compel  the  attendance 
of  the  youth  upon  them  if  necessary,  had  won  the  battle  so  far  as  it 
then  had  been  waged.  The  next  victory  for  the  cause  of  uni\'ersal 
education  and  the  principle  of  compulsion  was  won  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent  by  the  New  England  Puritans. 


*  Barnard,  p.  709. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Principle  of  Compulsion  in  New  England. 
I 620-1 800. 

The  Puritans  of  New  England  belonged  to  that  middle  class 
in  the  home  country  who  have  made  England  what  it  is  to-day. 
They  were  not  ignorant  men  driven  to  the  wilds  of  America  by 
poverty.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  the  earliest  settlers — the  men 
who  shaped  the  destinies  of  the  settlements — were  men  of  ability 
who  had  been  trained  in  the  schools  and  universities  of  England. 
No  inconsiderable  number  of  them  had  been  large  land-holders. 
Others  had  been  prosperous  merchants  having  independent  for- 
tunes. With  them  had  come  professional  men  from  the  Inns  of 
Court  and  the  ofifices  of  physicians.  The  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
who  accompanied  them,  with  few  exceptions,  were  men  of  learning 
and  of  more  than  ordinary  ability.  Nearly  all  of  them  had  been 
educated  at  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  had 
been  regularly  ordained  as  clergymen  in  the  Church  of  England, 
but  for  non-conformity  had  been  deprived  of  their  rectorships. 
They  were  acquainted  with  the  best  theological  literature  of  their 
time,  especially  that  produced  by  Protestant  writers.  Indeed, 
their  scholastic  attainments  were  of  such  high  order  that  Prof.  John 
Fiske  thinks  they  were  able  to  use  both  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament  in  their  original  tongues.*  The  clergymen,  and  not  in- 
frequently the  settlers  themselves,  brought  with  them  their  private 
collections  of  books,  "which  the  impulse  of  the  true  scholar,  to  im- 
part to  others  the  knowledge  he  has  gained,  afterwards  united  in 


'"  The  Beginning  of  New  England  "  (Boston,  ifi 

17 


1 8  Tlic  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

foundations  whence  have  since  arisen  the  splenchd  Hbraries  of  Yale 
and  Harvard. "  * 

Generally,  the  settlers  were  men  of  lofty  character,  possessing  a 
high  order  of  intelligence.  They  were  men  of  thrift  and  industry. 
They  w-ere  preeminently  religious,  and  had  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
Calvinistic  doctrines  they  had  espoused.  Their  wives  w^ere  edu- 
cated women  and  their  children  had  not  been  deprived  of  instruc- 
tion. "Probably,"  says  Victor  M.  Rice,  "no  such  a  body  of 
intelligent,  religious,  moral,  and  energetic  men  ever  before  left 
their  native  seats  to  found  new  colonies,  since  the  Greeks  went  forth 
to  found  Syracuse  and  Marseilles."  f 

Driven  from  their  native  land  by  religious  and  political  persecu- 
tions, it  was  but  natural  that  they  should  early  provide  for  the 
perpetuation  of  those  principles  and  doctrines  for  which  they  had 
sacrificed  so  much.  They  had  given  up  home,  kindred,  and  native 
land,  and  come  to  a  region  wild  and  uninhabited  save  by  savages. 
Even  here,  amidst  physical  dangers,  they  regarded  ignorance  as- 
their  worst  enemy.  It  was  the  covert  of  the  papacy  and  of  every 
form  of  political  despotism.  And  as  Luther,  a  century  before,  had 
based  the  safety  and  strength  of  a  city  in  an  educated  citizenship, 
so  these  early  Puritans  believed  that  the  only  security  possible  for 
the  commonwealth  they  had  founded,  and  the  only  means  by 
which  the  political  and  religious  principles  which  they  represented 
could  be  preserved  to  posterity  was  in  popular  instruction.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  early  as  July  20,  1629,  the  Rev.  Francis  Higginson, 
an  alumnus  of  Cambridge  University,  was  appointed  teacher  to  the 
congregation  at  Salem.  Four  years  later  the  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
who  had  also  been  educated  at  Cambridge,  and  who  before  coming 
to  America  had  acquired  a  reputation  for  ability  and  learning,  was 
chosen  as  teacher  to  the  congregation  of  the  First  Church  in 
Boston. 

*  "  The  Development  of  Conslitutioiial  Liberty  in  the  English  Colonies  of  America,"  by 
Eben  G.  Scott,  p.  88. 

f'Special  Report  on  the  Present  State  of  Edncation  in  the  United  States  and  Other 
Countries  and  on  Compulsory  Education  "  (Albany,  N.  V.,  iS66),  p.  66. 


In  Nezv  England.  19 

In  1635  Boston  took  a  more  advanced  step  and  made  provision 
for  a  public  school.  At  a  public  meeting  held  April  13  of  that 
year  it  was  voted  ' '  that  our  brother  Philemon  Pormant  shall  be  en- 
treated to  become  schoolmaster  for  the  teaching  and  instruction  of 
children  with  us."  *  A  tract  of- thirty  acres  of  land  was  assigned 
to  Mr.  Pormant,  which  is  now  believed  to  be  a  part  of  Brookline.f 
Pormant,  however,  soon  attached  himself  to  the  Antinomians  and 
went  to  Exeter  with  Wheelwright.  The  Rev.  Daniel  Maude  suc- 
ceeded him  as  teacher.  For  his  maintenance  a  subscription  of  fifty 
pounds  was  made.  Of  this  sum  Winthrop,  Vane,  and  Bellingham 
each  contributed  ten  pounds.;}; 

However,  as  the  immigrants  increased  in  numbers  and  the  settle- 
ments pushed  further  on  the  wilderness,  it  became  evident  that  pro- 
visions should  be  made  for  the  instruction  of  the  youth  more 
adequate  and  definite  than  that  already  provided.  On  June  14, 
1642,  the  following  order  was  passed  by  the  General  Court :  "  For 
as  much  as  the  good  education  of  children  is  of  singular  behoof  and 
benefit  to  any  commonwealth,  and  whereas  many  parents  and 
masters  are  too  indulgent  and  negligent  of  their  duty  in  that  kind, 

"It  is  ordered  that  the  selectmen  of  every  town  in  the  several 
precincts  and  quarters  where  they  dwell,  shall  have  a  vigilant 
eye  over  their  neighbors,  to  see  first  that  none  of  them  shall  suffer 
so  much  barbarism  in  any  of  their  families,  as  not  to  endeavor 
to  teach,  by  themselves  or  others,  their  children  and  apprentices  so 
much  learning  as  may  enable  them  to  read  perfectly  the  English 
tongue  and  to  get  knowledge  of  the  capital  laws,  upon  penalty  of 
twenty  shillings  for  each  neglect  therein. "|| 

Five  years  later,  November  11,  1647,  that  well-known  law  was 


♦"The  Memorial  History  of  Boston"  —  essay  by  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  LL.D., 
entitled  "Boston  Founded" — by  Justin  Winsor,  Vol.  I.,  p.  123.  See  also  "Free  Schools  in 
Colonial  Times,"  by  William  F.  Pillsbury  in  The  Public  School  Journal,  Vol.  XII.,  p.  286. 

t  The  Public  School  Journal,  \'o\.  XII.,  p.  2S6. 

J'"  History  of  New  England,"  by  John  Gorham  Palfrey  (i860).  Vol.  II.,  p.  47.  See  also 
Winsor's  "Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  123. 

II  Records  of  Massachusetts  Colony,  Vol.  I. 


20  The  History  of  CoDipn/sory  Education 

passed  beginning,  "  It  being  one  chiefe  project  of  yt  ould  deluder, 
Sathan,  to  keepe  men  from  the  knowledge  of  ye  Scriptures,  as  in 
an  unknown  tongue,  so  in  this  latter  time  by  persuading  from  ye 
use  of  tongues,  yt  so  at  least  ye  true  sence  and  meaning  of  ye 
original  might  be  clouded  by  false  glosses  of  saint-seeming  deceiv- 
ers, yt  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  ye  graves  of  o''  fathers  in 
ye  church  and  commonwealth,  the  Lord  assisting  o''  endeavors."* 
Then  follows  the  order  that  every  town  numbering  fifty  house- 
holders shall  appoint  one  of  the  community  to  teach  the  children  to 
read  and  write.  It  was  further  ordered  that  whenever  a  town 
should  increase  to  one  hundred  house-holders  a  grammar  school 
should  be  established  to  fit  the  youth  for  the  university.  The 
failure  of  any  town  to  comply  with  the  regulations  of  this  statute 
was  to  be  punished  by  a  fine  of.  five  shillings  to  be  paid   to  the 

.  nearest  school  until  the  order  was  obeyed. f 

The  grade  of  the  grammar  schools  instituted  by  this  statute  is 
revealed  to  some  extent  in  the  requirements  of  admission  to 
Harvard  College  at  that  time.  As  stated  in  the  "laws,  liberties, 
and  orders  of  Harvard  College,"  then  in  force,  candidates  for 
admission  were  required  to  give  evidence  of  ability  ' '  to  read 
Tully,  or  such  like  classical  author  extejnpore,''  to  speak  and  write 
Latin  in  both  prose  and  verse,  and  to  decline  the  Greek  paradigms 
of  nouns  and  verbs.  | 

^  Some  of  the  towns  failed  to  meet  these  requirements.  To  secure 
the  establishment  of  grammar  schools  in  all  towns  having  one 
hundred  house-holders,  the  General  Court  in  May,  1671,  doubled 


*Ibid.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  203. 

t  In  these  statutes  of  1642  and  1647,  we  have  the  beginnings  of  the  Massachusetts  school 
system.  This  system  was  sustained  for  tiearly  two  hundred  years  by  the  people  with  little  or 
no  aid  from  the  state.  It  was  not  until  1834  that  a  statute  was  passed  providing  for  a  state 
school  fund.  "  The  fund  was  to  consist  of  all  money  in  the  treasury  derived  from  the  sale  of 
lands  in  the  state  of  Maine,  and  from  the  claims  of  the  state  on  the  United  States  for  military 
services,  and  half  of  all  money  thereafter  to  be  received  from  the  sale  of  Maine  lands,  the 
fund  not  to  exceed  a  million  dollars." — The  Evolution  of  the  Alassachusetts  Public  School 
System,  by  George  H.  Martin  (Boston,  1894),  p.  154. 

X  Rice's  Report,  p.  67. 


hi  Nciv  Englmid.  21 

the  penalty  for  failure  to  comply  with  the  statutes.*  Twelve 
years  later  an  addition  was  made  to  the  law  requiring  all  towns  of 
five  hundred  families  or  more  to  establish  and  maintain  two  gram- 
mar schools  and  two  writing  schools. f 

Before  the  union  with  Massachusetts  colon)-  in  1691,  very  little 
had  been  done  by  Plymouth  colony  in  the  way  of  establishing 
schools.  Soon  after  the  Massachusetts  statute  of  1647  was  passed, 
similar  provisions  were  made  by  Plymouth.  This  law  seems  to 
have  been  a  dead  letter,  for  as  late  as  June,  1674,  there  was  but 
one  public  school  in  the  colony.  This  wag  at  Plymouth.  ;|;  In 
1663  an  order  was  passed  by  the  General  Court  recommending 
the  several  townships  of  the  colony  to  take  steps  toward  the 
organization  of  schools. ||  The  recommendation  availed  little,  if 
anything.  Ten  years  later  the  General  Court  passed  a  more 
effective  order.  It  was  then  ordered  that  the  thirty-three  pounds  a 
year  which  were  necessary  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  free 
schools  of  the  colony  should  be  paid  from  the  profits  of  the  fishing 
at  the  cape.  But  this  order  was  provisional  in  its  nature.  It  was 
to  continue  in  force  only  as  long  as  it  was  necessary  for  the  court 
to  learn  "the  minds  of  the  freemen  concerning  it. "§  The  order 
met  with  the  approval  of  "  the  freemen,"  and  at  the  meeting  of  the 
court  in  the  next  year  it  was  confirmed.  % 

At  the  meeting  of  the  court  in  November,  1677,  provisions  were 
made  for  the  establishment  of  grammar  schools.  Every  town 
having  fifty  families  or  more  was  to  establish  a  grammar  school  ; 
and  all  towns  of  seventy  or  more  families  not  having  such  schools 

♦Colonial  Records  of  Massachusetts,  Vol.  IV.,  Part  II.,  p.  486.    See  also  article  entitled 
"  Early  Legislation  in  Massachusetts,"  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XLVII.,  p.  279. 

+  Colonial  Records  of  Massachusetts,  Vol.  V.,  p.  414. 

t  "An  Historical  Memoir  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,"  by  Francis  Baylies  (Boston, 
1866),  Vol.  I.,  Part  II.,  p.  93. 

II  Records  of  Plymouth  Colony,  1623-1682,  p.  211. 

I  Ibid.,  p.  233. 

If  Ibid.,  p.  237. 


22  The  History  of  Conipulso)y  Education 

were  required  to  pay  the  next  town  that  had  compHed  with  the 
provisions  of  the  statute  the  sum  of  five  pounds.* 

When  the  union  was  effected  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  colony- 
superseded  those  of  Plymouth.  This  was  brought  about  by  a 
province  law  passed  in  1692  which  reenacted  all  of  the  colonial 
statutes  of  Massachusetts  excepting  that  of  1683.  This  province 
law  continued  in  force  without  change  till  1702,  when  it  was 
modified  by  a  statute  fixing  the  penalty  for  failure  to  establish  a 
grammar  school  at  twenty  pounds  per  annum.  The  penalty  was 
again  increased  in  17 18.  Upon  towns  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
families  it  was  raised  to  thirty  pounds.  It  was  increased  ten 
pounds  for  towns  of  two  hundred  families  ;  and  raised  in  the  same 
proportion  for  towns  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  and  three  hundred 
families,  t 

With  some  slight  modifications  these  laws  continued  in  force  till 
1780.  In  the  constitution  adopted  in  that  year,  the  legislature  was 
given  authority  to  require  the  people  of  the  state  to  make  pro- 
visions for  the  education  of  the  youth,  and  to  compel  their  attend- 
ance upon  the  schools  thus  provided.;};  The  authority  thus 
granted  was  exercised  by  the  legislature  in  1789.  On  the  20th  of 
June  that  year,  an  act  was  passed  "for  the  instruction  of  youth, 
and  for  the  promotion  of  good  education."  The  principle  under- 
lying this  law  was  the  same  as  that  which  characterized  the 
colonial  laws  from  the  very  first.  The  establishment  of  schools 
was  made  compulsory.  All  towns  of  fifty  families  or  house- 
holders, and  less  than  one  hundred,  were  required  to  support  one 
or  more  schoolmasters  to  teach  the  English  language  six  months 
in  each  year.  Failure  to  comply  with  this  provision  was  punishable 
by  a  fine  of  ten  pounds.  If  a  school  of  the  character  specified  in 
the  statute  had  been  kept  for  a  less  time  than  six  months,  then  a 
proportionable  part  of  the  fine  was  assessed  for  such  time  as  the 


*  Ibid.,  pp.  246,  247. 

t  North  American  Review,  Vol.  XLVH.,  p.  2S0. 

\  The  Constitution  of  Massacliusetts,  17S0,  Art.  III. 


In  Neiv  Eiiglaiid.  23 

school  was  not  in  session.  Towns  of  one  hundred  famiHcs  and 
upwards  were  required  to  keep  such  a  school  during  the  entire 
year,  under  penalty  of  a  fine  of  twenty  pounds.  As  in  the  case  of 
towns  of  fifty  families,  if  the  school  had  been  kept  part  of  the  year, 
a  proportionable  part  of  the  fine  was  assessed  for  the  time  the 
school  was  not  in  session,  and  not  the  entire  sum.  Towns  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  families  were  also  required  to  keep  such  a  school 
during  the  entire  year.  But  the  penalty  was  again  increased. 
For  keeping  no  school  at  all,  it  was  thirty  pounds  ;  and  a  propor- 
tionable part  of  this  for  the  time  the  school  was  not  in  session,  if  a 
school  had  been  kept  for  a  part  of  the  year  only.  A  penalty  of 
thirty  pounds,  and  proportionably  a  sum  for  less  time  than  a  year, 
was  fixed  for  the  failure  of  towns  and  districts  having  two  hundred 
families  and  upwards  to  establish  grammar  schools.^ 

The  laws  passed  by  Connecticut  during  this  period  were  much 
like  those  of  Massachusetts.  The  first  code  of  laws  adopted  here 
was  in  1650.  In  this  code  was  a  provision  for  obligatory  education 
which  was  almost  a  literal  transcript  of  the  Massachusetts  statute  of 
i642.f  Five  years  later  a  code  was  adopted  by  New  Haven 
colony  containing  similar  provisions.  Both  of  these  colonies,  how- 
ever, had  schools  prior  to  the  dates  when  these  codes  were  adopted. 
In  Ha'rtford  a  school  was  kept  as  early  as  1637  or  1638  by  John 
Higginson,  who  was  aft:erward  minister  at  Saybrook  and  at  Salem. 
Higginson  was  succeeded  by  a  man  of  the  name  of  Collins,  a  son- 
in-law  of  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson.;];  In  April,  1643,  at  a  general 
town  meeting  it  was  \-oted  that  Mr.  Andrews  should  teach  the 
school  for  one  year.  His  salary  was  fixed  at  sixteen  pounds,  which 
the    town   guaranteed.  ||       In    February    of    1648    it    was    agreed 

*  The  Laws  of  the  Massachusetts  Commonwealtli  from  November  28,  1780,  to  February  28, 
1807  (Boston,  1S07),  Vol.  I.,  p.  469. 

t  The  Public  Records  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut  Prior  to  the  Union  with  New  Haven, 
p.  520. 

X  Palfrey,  Vol.  11.,  p.  48.     See  also  Cotton  Mather's  "  Magnalia,"  Bk.  III.,  Chap.  I.,  \  15. 

II  "  History  of  Common  Schools  in  Connecticut,"  by  Henry  Barnard,  LL.  D.,  in  Barnard's 
Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  IV.  (1858),  p.  658.  See  also  "  A  Brief  History  of  Public  Education 
in  Connecticut,"  in  the  Report  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education  for  1876,  p.  92. 


24  The  History  of  Compulsory  Educatio7i 

to   appropriate   forty   pounds    for    the    erection   of  a    schoolhouse. 

The  example  of  Hartford  in  making  provisions  for  the  education 
of  the  youth  was  followed  by  other  Connecticut  towns.  Their 
method  of  supporting  the  schools  they  established  was  the  same  as 
in  Hartford.  In  Wethersfield,  it  was  ordered  on  March  12,  1658, 
that  Mr.  Thomas  Lord  should  be  employed  as  schoolmaster  at 
a  salary  of  twenty-five  pounds  a  year.  Mr.  Lord  was  also  voted 
the  use  of  a  house  and  lot,  and  ' '  the  use  of  the  meadow  as 
formerly."  -^ 

New  Haven  colony  was  settled  in  163S.  The  next  year  mention 
is  made  of  a  school  in  the  records  which  seems  to  indicate  the 
existence  of  a  school  at  this  early  date.f  In  1641  it  was  ordered 
that  "  a  free  schoole  shall  be  sett  up  in  this  towne."  The  yearly 
allowance  to  be  appropriated  by  the  town  for  this  purpose  was 
to  be  determined  by  a  committee  consisting  of  the  pastor,  Rev. 
John  Davenport,  and  the  magistrates  of  the  town.|  It  was  agreed 
by  the  committee  that  this  sum  should  be  twenty  pounds.  But 
that  not  proving  sufificient  for  a  competent  maintenance,  in  August 
of  1664  it  was  raised  to  thirty  pounds.  ||  Mr.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  to 
whom,  with  Elijah  Corlet,  Cotton  Mather  gave  the  praise  of  having 
saved  New  England  from  barbarism,  was  the  first  teacher. §  Later 
Cheever  was  established  as  schoolmaster  at  Ipswich  and  Cfiarles- 
town,  Massachusetts.  In  1671  he  went  to  Boston  and  took  charge 
of  the  Latin  school  there. 

These  provisions  of  New  Haven  colony  remained  in  force  until 
1665,  when  the  colony  was  united  with  Connecticut.  Then  they 
were  superseded  by  the  Connecticut  laws.  These  continued  in 
force,  without  change,  until  167 1.      In  that  year  a  revision  of  the 


*"  History  of  Common  Schools  in  Connecticut,"  by  Henry  Barnard,  LL.  D.,  in  Barnard's 
Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  IV.  (1858),  p.  659. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  661. 

J  Records  of  the  Colony  and  Plantation  of  New  Haven  from  163S  to  1649,  p.  62.  See  alsa 
Palfrey,  Vol.  H.,  p.  47. 

I  Records  of  the  Colony  and  Plantation  of  Xew  Haven  from  163S  to  1649,  p.  210. 

I  Ibid.,  p.  210.     Palfrey,  Vol.  H.,  p.  47. 


In  Netv  England.  25 

laws  was  begun  which  was  completed  and  approved  the  next  year. 
The  new  code  retained  the  obligatory  provision  of  1650.  In  addi- 
tion, there  was  an  order  for  the  establishment  of  a  grammar  school 
in  every  county.  To  accomplish  the  purpose  of  this  order,  the 
court  granted  six  hundred  acres  of  land  to  each  of  the  four 
counties.*  The  efficiency  of  these  laws  was  greatly  increased 
in  1677.  Then  the  General  Court  ordered  that  every  town  should 
forfeit  five  pounds  for  the  support  of  the  Latin  school  in  that 
county,  if  it  failed  to  keep  a  school  above  three  months  in  a  year.f 
At  nearly  the  same  time,  the  failure  of  any  county  town  to  establish 
a  Latin  or  grammar  school  was  made  punishable  by  a  fine  of 
ten  pounds.  This  fine  was  to  be  paid  annually  by  the  county  town 
until  it  should  establish  such  a  school,  to  the  next  town  in  the 
county.  ;j;  In  1690  the  court  ordered  the  establishment  of  two  free 
grammar  schools,  one  at  Hartford  and  the  other  at  New  Haven. || 

A  second  revision  of  the  laws  took  place  in  1700,  and  two  years 
later  was  published.  This  revision  retained  the  ' '  Act  for  Edu- 
cating Children"  as  it  was  originally  in  the  code  of  1650.  But  it 
contained  two  new  and  important  features.  A  tax  of  ' '  forty 
shillings  on  every  thousand  pounds  of  the  list  of  estates ' '  was  to 
be  collected  in  every  town  with  the  annual  tax  of  the  colony  to 
be  paid  proportionably  to  those  towns  only  that  kept  their  schools 
according  to  the  law.  The  other  feature  referred  to  was  a  pro- 
vision requiring  every  town  having  seventy  or  more  families  to 
keep  their  school  eleven  months  in  the  year.  All  towns  having 
less  than  seventy  families  were  to  keep  their  school  not  less  than 
six  months. 

In  17 15  an  act  was  passed  which  was  designed  to  effect  a  more 
faithful  execution  of  the  "Act  for  Educating  Children."      In  May, 


♦Colonial  Records,  1665  to  1678,  p.  176.     See  also  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education 
of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  1872,  p.  108. 
t Colonial  Records,  1665  to  1678,  p.  307. 
Xlbid.,  p.  312. 
II  Colonial  Records  of  Connecticut,  1689  to  1706,  p.  31. 


26  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

1717,  the  law  of  1700  requiring  towns  having  seventy  or  more 
famihes  to  keep  their  school  eleven  months  in  the  year,  and  towns 
with  a  less  number  of  families  to  keep  theirs  six,  was  extended  to 
parishes  or  societies  having  that  number. -i^ 

In  October,  1742,  the  General  Court  passed  an  act  for  a  better 
regulation  of  the  schools.  In  the  same  year  a  committee  con- 
sisting of  Roger  Wolcott,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Thomas  Fitch,  and 
John  Bulkley,  was  appointed  to  make  a  revision  of  the  laws.  This 
revision  was  not  published  until  1750.  With  a  slight  alteration, 
the  "Act  for  Educating  Children"  as  it  was  originally  in  1650  was 
retained.  Another  revision  was  made  in  1783  by  Roger  Sherman 
and  Richard  Law,  who  were  appointed  in  May  of  that  year.f 
After  a  careful  consideration  at  an  adjourned  session  of  the  General 
Court,  in  January,  1784,  this  revision  was  accepted  and  ordered  to 
be  published.  The  obligatory  provisions  of  this  revision  remained 
the  same  as  in  r750.;{: 

In  Rhode  Island  but  little  was  done  during  this  period  toward 

the  establishment  of  schools  for  the  people.      Here  the  idea  pre- 

,  vailed,  as  it  always  has  in  England  until  very  recently,  that  public 

elementary  schools  are  charitable  institutions.  ||     The    same    idea 

prevailed  in  the  South  and  to  some  extent  in  Pennsylvania. 

It  was  a  theory  in  Rhode  Island  that  the  state  could  not  safely 
interfere  in  elementary  instruction  except  in  instances  where  the 
people  were  unable  to  provide  the  necessary  means  for  it.  But  the 
poorer  people  dici  not  always  indorse  the  establishment  of  schools 
under  this  provision.  When  in  1768  an  effort  was  made  to  estab- 
lish a  public  school  system  supported  by  a  tax,  it  was  defeated  by 
the  opposition  of  this  class.  And  again  at  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  when  John  Howland  labored  to  establish  a  system 


*  "  History  of  Common  Schools  in  Connecticut,"  in  Barnard's  Joutiial  of  Education,  Vol. 
IV.,  p.  698. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  701. 
Xlbid.,  p.  703. 
II  "  Free  School  System  of  the  United  States,"  hy  Francis  Adams,  p.  52. 


In  Neiu  England.  27 

of  free  schools  for  the  state,  it  was  from  this  class  that  the  chief 
objections  came. 

Another  reason  for  the  failure  of  Rhode  Island  to  make  as 
ample  provisions  for  universal  education  as  did  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  was  probably  because  the  colony  was  small,  and 
the  settlements  too  feeble  to  secure  efficient  organization.  In 
16S0  the  population  did  not  exceed  7,000.  In  1700  it  was  less 
than  ten  thousand  ;  while  in  1730,  it  was  only  17,935.*  Besides 
these  reasons,  there  is  a  third  that  may  help  to  explain  the  feeble 
assistance  the  colony  gave  to  the  cause  of  education.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, a  most  potent  force  in  building  up  and  sustaining  a 
system  of  schools  was  the  clergy.  In  Rhode  Island,  there  was  a 
most  vigorous  opposition  to  clerical  influence,  and  ' '  against  the 
traditional  institutions  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  "f 

Schools,  howe\'er,  were  not  wholly  wanting.  Newport  estab- 
lished one  in  1640,  and  Robert  Lenthal  was  made  teacher. 
Lenthal  could  not  have  remained  in  this  office  but  two  years  at 
most. J  It  is  stated  in  the  records  of  the  colony  that  "at  the 
General  Court  of  elections  held  on  the  i6th  and  17th  of  March  at 
Newport,  1642,  it  was  ordered  that  Mr.  Lenthal,  being  gone  for 
England,  is  suspended  his  vote  in  elections. "|| 

In  May,  1663,  provisions  were  made  for  the  establishment  of  a 
school  in  Providence.  The  proprietors  passed  an  order  agreeing 
that  "one  hundred  acres  of  upland  and  six  acres  of  meadow 
(or  lowland  to  the  quantity  of  eight  acres  in  lieu  of  meadow)  shall 
be  laid  out  within  the  bounds  of  this  town  of  Providence ;  which 
land  shall  be  reserved  for  the  maintenance  of  a  school  in  this  town  ; 


♦Article  on  "  Rhode  Island  "  in  "  Tlie  Cyclopaedia  of  Education,"  by  Henry  Kiddle  and 
Alexander  J.  Scheni  (New  York  and  London,  1S77),  p.  734. 

t  Ibid. 

t  "  The  Cyclopaedia  of  Education,"  by  Kiddle  and  Schem,  cites  Callender's  "Historical 
Discourse"  (published  in  173S)  as  authority  for  the  statement  that  "an  appropriation  of  one 
hundred  acres  of  land  was  made  for  the  permanent  support  of  schools,"  at  the  time  Lenthal 
was  employed  as  teacher.  I  have  been  unable  to  find  any  evidence  of  such  a  grant  in  the 
records.     However,  part  of  the  early  records  have  disappeared. 

II  Rhode  Island  Records,  1636-63,  Vol.  I.,  p.  119. 


28  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

and  that  after  the  said  land  is  laid  and  the  bounds  there  set,  it 
shall  be  recorded  in  our  town  records,  according  unto  the  bounds 
fixed,  and  shall  be  called  by  the  name  of  the  school  lands  of 
Providence."*  In  January,  1696,  a  grant  of  land  was  made  to 
John  Dexter,  William  Hopkins,  and  others  for  the  erection  of  a 
schoolhouse.f 

In  1767  the  citizens  voted  to  build  three  schoolhouses  for 
primary  instruction  and  one  for  more  advanced  pupils.  These 
schools  were  to  be  under  the  control  of  the  school  committee,  and 
the  cost  for  their  support  to  be  defrayed  out  of  the  town  treasury. 

In  1768  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose  reported  a  plan 
for  the  organization  of  the  schools  under  state  control.  The 
report  was  made  through  Gov.  Jabez  Bowen.  It  offered  to  every 
inhabitant  of  the  town,  whether  free  or  not,  equal  privileges  in  the 
school.  However,  the  plan  was  defeated  by  the  poorer  people  of 
the  town.;}; 

In  Bristol,  a  grant  of  land  was  made  in  1680,  "for  the  encour- 
agement and  use  of  an  able  orthodox  minister,  and  for  the  use  and 
encouragement  of  an  able  schoolmaster  in  the  town."||  Other 
orders  were  passed  by  the  town  in  1682  and  1684.  The  order  of 
1682  fixed  the  teacher's  salary  at  twenty-four  pounds  a  year. 
That  of  1684  voted  this  sum  "to  Mr.  Cobbitt  for  officiating  in  the 
place  of  a  schoolmaster. ' ' 

These  were  the  leading  attempts  to  establish  a  system  of  schools 
prior  to  the  Revolution.  In  none  of  the  acts  passed  is  there  an 
obligatory  provision  either  for  the  establishment  of  schools  or  the 
attendance  of  the  children  upon  them.  But  in  the  year  1800, 
a  new  era  begins  in  the  history  of  education  in  Rhode  Island.  In 
1799  John  Howland  drew  up  a  petition  to  the  General  Assembly 

*  "  Annals  of  the  Town  of  Providence,  from  its  First  Settlement  to  the  Organization  of  the 
City  Government,  in  June,  1832,"  by  William  R.  Staples  (Providence,  1S43),  p.  492. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  494. 

X  "  The  CyclopLEclia  of  Education,"  by  Kiddle  and  Schem. 
11  /6ui. 


In  Nezv  England.  29 

asking  that  a  free  school  system  be  estabhshed  in  the  state.  This 
petition  was  presented  to  the  Assembly  at  the  February  session  of 
this  year  by  the  "  Providence  Association  of  Mechanics  and  Manu- 
facturers." It  was  referred  to  a  committee  which  reported  in  June 
by  offering  a  bill  having  in  view  the  establishment  of  such  a  system 
of  schools  as  the  petition  asked.  In  October  the  bill  passed  the 
House  of  Representatives  after  vigorous  opposition  by  many.  It 
was  referred  to  the  Senate,  which  deferred  action  until  the  February 
session  of  the  next  year.  Then  the  bill  was  passed  and  became 
a  law.  But  it  never  had  a  fair  trial.  The  violent  opposition  with 
which  it  had  been  met  in  the  House  of  Representatives  led  to 
measures  for  its  repeal.  These  were  successful.  The  law  soon  be- 
came unpopular  and  in  February  of  1803  it  was  repealed.*  It  was 
not  until  the  January  session  of  1828  that  another  act  establishing 
public  schools  was  passed,  f  Then  the  present  school  system 
was  founded. 

Of  the  other  New  England  States  but  little  is  to  be  said.  From 
1 64 1  till  1693  New  Hampshire  was  a  part  of  Massachusetts.  After 
it  became  an  independent  province,  its  laws  pertaining  to  education 
were  the  same  in  spirit  as  those  of  Massachusetts.  Vermont  was 
not  permanently  settled  until  1724.  Prior  to  the  Revolution  no  at- 
tempt was  made  to  establish  a  school  system.  And,  as  in  Rhode 
Island,  the  principle  of  compulsion  was  wholly  wanting. 


The  history  of  modern  compulsory  education  destroys  that 
objection  to  obligatory  laws,  so  frequently  urged  in  some  parts 
of  the  United  States  of  late,  that  they  are  monarchical  in  their 
origin  and  history.  Common  as  the  idea  is  that  obligatory  laws 
originated  in  Prussia,  it  is  wholly  erroneous.  Nearly  two  centuries 
had  elapsed  from  Luther's  famous  address  in   1524,  before  Fred- 

*  "  Annals  of  the  Town  of  Providence,"  etc.,  by  William  R.  Staples,  pp.  505-50S. 
^Ibid.,  p.  511. 


30  The  History  of  Compidsory  Education 

erick  William  I.  issued  those  mandatory  orders  that  developed  into 
compulsory  attendance  laws.  These  orders  were  issued  October 
24,  1713  ;  and  nearly  four  years  later,  September  28,  17 17,  the 
king  issued  the  first  law.  Then  such  laws  had  been  tried  by 
the  state  of  Geneva,  the  Estates  of  Navarre,  and  the  duchy  of 
Wiirtemberg.  Such  a  law  had  been  in  successful  operation  in 
Massachusetts  for  seventy-five  years,  and  in  Connecticut  for  nearly 
the  same  time. 

Compulsory  education,  as  understood  in  modern  times,  had 
its  origin  in  the  desire  for  universal  education  which  accompanied 
the  Reformation.  The  principle  that  the  safety  and  the  strength  of 
a  city  lie  in  an  educated  and  a  moral  citizenship,  and  that  other 
principle,  which  is  its  sequence,  that  the  state  has  not  only  the  right 
to  establish  schools,  but  that  it  is  its  duty  to  do  so,  and,  if  need  be, 
to  compel  the  attendance  of  its  youth  upon  them,  are  both 
Lutheran  in  their  origin.  They  constituted  the  fundamental  doc- 
trine of  the  great  reformer's  famous  address  in  1524.  Through 
such  propagandists  as  the  "gentle  Melancthon,"  Myconius,  and 
Justus  Jonas,  with  the  aid  of  such  wise  rulers  as  John  the  Constant 
and  Duke  Christopher  of  Wiirtemberg,  they  became  by  the  close 
of  the  sixteenth  century  an  essential  part  of  the  educational  creed  of 
Protestant  Germany.  It  is  true  they  were  not  universal  in  their 
application  during  this  era,  and  that  later  there  were  periods  of 
retrogression. 

When  the  laws  of  Frederick  William  I.  were  given,  a  new  era 
began.  The  principle  of  the  right  of  the  state  to  compel  the 
attendance  of  its  youth  upon  the  schools  it  had  established  was 
asserted  with  new  vigor.  It  was  the  same  principle  for  which 
Luther  had  contended  ;  the  same  principle  which  determined  the 
character  of  the  system  established  by  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut. The  great  difference  between  the  Massachusetts  statutes 
of  1642  and  1647,  and  that  of  Connecticut  of  1650,  when  com- 
pared with  the  laws  of  Frederick  William  with  reference  to  this 
principle,  is  merely  one  of  degree.      New  England  emphasized  it 


In  New  England.  31 

earlier  and  more  strongly  than  Prussia.  But  it  is  in  the  Prussian 
law.  By  this  law  parents,  especially  those  in  the  rural  districts, 
are  required  to  send  their  children  to  school  from  their  fifth  to  the 
twelfth  year.  They  are  to  attend  school  daily  in  winter,  and  in 
summer,  if  they  are  needed  for  work,  at  least  once  or  twice  a  week. 
The  fee  fixed  for  their  schooling-  was  two  threepence  for  each 
child  per  week.  If  the  parents  were  too  poor  to  pay  this  sum, 
then  it  was  to  be  paid  from  the  community's  fund.*  But  Fred- 
erick William's  labors  in  behalf  of  the  education  of  his  people  did 
not  cease  with  these  laws  of  1717.  He  was  a  great  school  builder. 
In  Preussen  and  Lithuania,  by  the  end  of  his  reign,  he  had  estab- 
lished more  than  eleven  hundred  village  schools  {Dorfschiileii)  for 
the  people,  t 

His  example  was  followed  by  his  illustrious  son.  At  three 
different  times  during  the  first  years  of  his  reign,  Frederick  II. 
issued  regulations  concerning  the  support  of  schools.  % 

After  the  Peace  of  Paris,  February  10,  1763,  Frederick  gave  a 
"General  School  Regulation  for  the  Whole  Monarchy. "||  The 
tenth  section  of  this  "Regulation"  requires  that  parents  and 
guardians  who  have  children  to  educate,  and  who  do  not  send  them 
to  school  as  the  ordinance  requires,  "shall  still  be  obliged  to  pay 
the  common  school  fee  for  the  term."  Guardians  were  not 
permitted  to  pay  this  sum  from  money  belonging  to  their  wards. 


*  "Auf  eine  Aiiregiing  des  reform icrten  Kircheiidirectoriums  erliesz  der  KoiiiK  1717  eine 
'  generelle  \'erordiiuiig.'  Von  alien  Consistorien  und  kirchlichen  Behordeii  '  in  alien  konig- 
lichen  Landern,'  dasz  die  Alterii,  namentlich  audi  auf  dam  platten  Laiide,  bei  nachdriick- 
licher  Strafe  gehalten  sein  sollten,  ihre  Kinder  vom  fiinften  bis  zuni  zwolften  Jahre  im  Winter 
taglich,  und  im  Sommer,  wenn  sie  bei  der  Wirthschaft  benothigt,  zum  wenigsten  ein  oder 
zweimal  die  Woclie  zur  Schule  zu  schicken  ;  sie  sollen  fiir  jedes  Kind  in  der  Woche  zwei 
Dreier  zahlen,  und  wenn  sie  zu  arm  sind,  sollen  die  zwei  Dreier,  'aus  jedes  Orts  Almozen  ' 
bezahlt  werden." — Geschichte  der  Preuszischeyi  PoHtik,  von  Joh.  Gust.  Droysen  i^Leipzig, 
1869),  Vierter  Tlieil,  Drilte  Abtheibing ,  Seite  418. 

t  Ibid.,  Seitfl  420  :  "  History  of  Prussia  to  the  Accession  of  Frederick  the  Great,  1 134-1740," 
by  Herbert  Tuttle  (Boston  and  New  York,  1883),  p.  471. 

X  These  orders  were  issued  October  13,  1740,  October  29,  1741,  and  January  2,  1743. 

II  This  "Regulation"  was  given  August  12,  1763.  Barnard's  "Systems,  Institutions,  and 
Statistics  of  Public  Instruction,"  pp.  861-868. 


32         History  of  Compulsory  Education  in  New  England. 

Besides  this,  the  law  fixes  another  penalty  for  its  violation.  "If, 
after  earnest  exhortation  of  the  ministers,  they  do  not  send  their 
children  regularly  to  school,  then  the  magistrates  of  the  town,  in 
the  last  resort,  shall  direct  execution  against  them.  It  is  made  the 
duty  of  the  school-visitors  to  impose  on  such  parents  as  have  not 
made  their  children  attend  school  regularly,  a  fine  of  sixteen 
groschen,  to  be  paid  into  the  school-treasury."  On  November  3, 
1765,  he  gave  "Regulations  for  Catholic  Schools  in  Silesia."* 
These  contained  compulsory  features  analogous  to  those  given  in 
the  Regulations  of  1763. 

Thus,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  schools  for  the 
people  were  demanded  by  monarchical  Prussia  and  democratic  New 
England.  The  educational  principles  that  characterized  Luther's 
writings  had  become  dominant.  There  was  no  questioning  the 
right  of  the  state  to  establish  schools.  It  was  acknowledged  that 
the  state  had  the  right  to  compel  the  attendance  of  its  youth  upon 
them.  New  England  had  asserted  these  principles  and  demon- 
strated their  truth  by  legal  "enactments  earlier  than  Prussia.  But 
when  Frederick  William  I.  came  to  the  throne,  through  him 
and  the  greater  Frederick,  Prussia  demonstrated  their  truth  as 
completely,  and  asserted  them  with  as  much  vigor,  as  ever  had  been 
done  elsewhere  in  the  Protestant  world. 


*  Ibid.,  pp.  S69-877. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Indirect   Compulsiox — The   Factory   Laws   of   Massachu- 
setts AND  Connecticut. 

The  two  essential  elements  in  every  system  of  universal  educa- 
tion are  the  establishment  of  schools  for  all  the  people  irrespective 
of  class,  and  the  education  of  the  youth  in  these  schools,  or  by 
other  means,  whether  brought  about  by  public  opinion  or  by 
obligatory  laws.  This  was  fully  comprehended  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritans,  and  the  first  two  acts  relating  to  education  that  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  passed  created  such  a  system. 
The  same  thing  was  done  in  Connecticut  when  the  code  of  1650  be- 
came the  law  of  that  commonwealth.  From  the  time  they  were 
established  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  these  systems  remained  the  same.  Such  laws 
as  were  passed  during  this  period  had  for  their  purpose  either  the 
increase  of  educational  advantages,  or  the  making  of  the  attend- 
ance laws  more  stringent.  The  very  first  law  passed  by  Connecti- 
cut in  the  present  century  is  but  a  reiteration  of  the  principle  found 
in  the  first  code.  This  statute  was  enacted  in  1805,  and  required 
all  parents  to  see  that  "their  children  are  able  to  read  the  English 
tongue  well  and  know  the  laws  against  capital  offences."  The 
only  difference  between  this  law  and  the  code  is  that  the  penalty 
for  neglect  to  meet  these  requirements  is  fixed  at  $3.34  ;  whereas 
formerly  it  was  twenty  shillings. -'^ 

In  the  main,  these  early  laws  in  both  commonwealths  were  faith- 
fully administered.  They  expressed  the  sentiment  of  a  majority  of 
the  people,    and   in   the   high   intelligence   that   has    characterized 


♦The  Public  Statutes  of  Connecticut  (Hartford,  iSo8),  p.  123. 

33 


34  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education. 

the  people  from  the  earhest  times  there  is  sufficient  evidence  of 
their  utihty. 

The  conditions  under  which  these  systems  were  estabhshed  were 
most  favorable  to  their  successful  administration.  The  people  were 
homogeneous  and  in  the  main  well-to-do.  They  were  intelligent 
and  industrious.  Besides,  the  Protestant  creed  which  they  had  ac- 
cepted had  from  the  very  first  proclaimed  itself  the  friend  of  such 
systems  as  had  been  established  here.  More  than  this,  the  prin- 
ciple of  universal  education  was  the  basal  stone  on  which  Protes- 
tantism had  been  reared.  This  accounts  for  the  unanimity  of 
thought  relative  to  these  systems,  and  the  united  action  which 
was  given  to  their  support. 

But  the  simple  social  arrangement  which  characterized  New 
England  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  was  completely 
changed  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  A  new 
industrial  system  then  began.  In  England,  the  inventions  of  Ark- 
wright,  Hargreaves,  Crompton,  and  Watt  had  revolutionized 
the  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics.  The  old  methods  were  super- 
seded by  organized  manufacturing  establishments.  The  cottage 
of  the  weaver  could  no  longer  be  his  factory.  But  he  was  com- 
pelled, in  order  to  support  himself  and  his  family,  to  move  to 
the  nearest  town  and  engage  in  the  employ  of  some  capitalist. 
Important  and  valuable  as  was  this  change  to  the  economic 
development  of  England,  it  was  attended  with  some  evil  conse- 
quences. It  was  soon  found  that  the  lighter  portions  of  the 
work  could  be  done  by  very  young  children.  Many  children 
of  the  poorest  families  were  sent  from  the  south  of  England  by  the 
poor-law  overseers  to  be  apprenticed  in  the  manufacturing  districts 
of  the  north.  In  these  communities  they  were  treated  hardly  better 
than  slaves.  They  were  worked  night  and  day,  and  "it  is  even 
said  that  one  gang,  when  exhausted,  went  to  rest  in  the  beds  still 
warm  of  those  coming  on  to  work."*  Besides  this,  they  were  illy 
fed  and  poorly  clothed. 

*  "  The  State  in  its  Relation  to  Labor,"  by  \V.  Stanley  Jevons  (London),  p.  53. 


In  New  England.  35 

This  overworking^  and  underfeeding  of  these  pauper  children 
soon  led  to  an  epidemic  of  disease.  The  attention  of  the  public 
was  first  directed  to  the  evils  in  1796,  through  the  labors  of 
Doctors  Aiken  and  Percival,  who  had  been  appointed  to  inves- 
tigate them.^^i^  These  gentlemen  so  strongly  emphasized  the  evils 
of  the  factory  system  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  employment  of 
child  labor  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  introduced  in  Parliament,  in  1802, 
a  bill  to  remedy  these  evils.  This  bill  became  a  law  and  was 
known  as  the  "  Health  and  Morals  Act."  Besides  certain  sanitary 
provisions  relating  to  the  factories,  it  required  the  master  to 
furnish  a  new  suit  of  clothes  to  each  apprentice  yearly  ;  the  hours 
of  labor  were  fixed  at  twelve  hours  daily,  and  night  work  with 
certain  exceptions  was  entirely  forbidden  ;  and  finally,  all  appren- 
tices were  to  be  instructed  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  f 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  in  a  little  more  than  a  decade  of  years  after 
the  establtshment  of  the  factory  system  in  England  evils  had 
followed  it  which  demanded  legislation  for  their  eradication.  In 
New  England  there  was  the  same  tendency  to  establish  factories. 
This  tendency  differed  from  that  in  England  only  in  degree. 
There  was  less  capital  and  less  skilled  labor  to  be  employed  than 
in  England  ;  but  nevertheless  the  same  spirit  was  manifested.  In 
1785  Boston  formed  an  "Association  of  Tradesmen  and  Me- 
chanics. ' '  X  Four  years  later  Providence  founded  its  ' '  Association 
of  Mechanics  and  Manufacturers. "||  This  latter  organization, 
which  still  exists,  had  for  its  purpose  the  "promoting  of  industry, 
and  giving  just  encouragement  to  ingenuity. ' ' 

Another  evidence  that  the  tendency  to  establish  factories  pre- 
vailed in  New  England  is  found  in  the  establishment  of  a  large 
factory  in  Boston,  in   1788  or  1789,  for  the  manufacture  of  linen 


*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  Third  Series,  Vol.  XVII.,  p.  85. 
t  Jevons,  p.  54. 

I  "  Economic  and  Social   History  of  New   England,   1620-1789  "    (Boston),  by  William   B. 
Weeden,  Vol.  II.,  p.  847. 

II  Ibid.,  p.  850. 


36  The  History  of  Co)npulso)-y  Education 

canvas.  Besides  this,  Weeden  says  that  "from  1785  to  1791 
cotton  was  being  introduced  into  the  Southern  States  from  the 
West  Indian  seed,  to  meet  the  new  demand  for  northern  manu- 
facturers as  well  as  for  exportation."*  But  the  real  development 
of  the  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics  in  New  England  began 
under  the  Embargo  Act  of  1S07.  At  the  close  of  that  year,  there 
were  but  fifteen  cotton  mills  in  the  United  States.  Two  years 
later  eighty-seven  more  such  mills  had  been  built.  And  in  1810, 
when  Gallatin  made  his  report  on  American  manufacturers,  he 
roughly  estimated  the  total  annual  value  of  all  manufactured  prod- 
ucts, at  that  time,  at  $120, 000, 000.  f 

This  economic  development  had  its  disadvantages.  It  is  true 
that  in  both  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  where  child  labor  was 
used,  the  children  were  not  so  cruelly  treated  as  in  England  before 
the  "Health  and  Morals  Act"  was  passed.  They  never  were 
slaves  in  any  sense.  But  the  practice  of  binding  out  children  was 
accompanied  by  deprivation  of  educational  privileges.  This  evil 
became  so  great  in  Connecticut  that  by  181 3  the  old  laws  pertain- 
ing to  education  were  practically  a  dead  letter  in  some  localities. 

The  General  Assembly  took  hold  of  the  matter,  and  in  1813 
enacted  a  law  to  eradicate  this  evil.  By  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
the  proprietors  of  all  manufacturing  establishments  were  required 
to  see  that  all  the  children  of  their  employ  were  taught  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic.  Furthermore,  they  were  to  give  attention 
to  the  children's  morals.  To  secure  obedience  to  this  law,  the 
selectmen  of  each  town  were  constituted  a  board  of  visitors  to 
ascertain  annually  whether  or  not  these  provisions  were  obeyed. 
This  board  was  also  required  to  report  all  violations  to  the  next 
county  court.  I 

When  the  statutes  were  revised  in   1821,  the  provisions  of  this 


*  Ibid.,  p.  851. 

t  "  History  of  the  United  States  of  America  Under  the  Constitution,"  by  James  Schouler 
<Washington,  D.  C,  1889),  Vol.  II.,  p.  298. 
X  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  18S8-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  4S6. 


In  AkcV  England.  37 

law  were  reenacted.*  It  remained  on  the  statute  books  until  1842, 
but  it  never  realized  the  expectations  of  its  friends.  It  had  two 
weaknesses  that  prevented  its  meeting  with  the  success  that  was 
hoped  for  it.  It  contained  no  provision  whatever  for  school 
instruction,  but  merely  specified  that  certain  subjects  should  be 
taught  the  children.  As  enacted,  the  law  left  to  the  masters  the 
character  of  the  training  to  be  given  ;  and  this  is  nearly  always  the 
most  important  element  in  elementary  education.  The  second 
weakness  consisted  in  the  want  of  a  provision  requiring  towns 
under  penalty  to  organize  the  board  of  visitors.  Dr.  Henry 
Barnard  said  of  this  statute  in  1840:  "It  is  a  dead  letter  in 
nearly  if  not  every  town  in  the  state.  I  know  not  of  a  single 
instance  where  the  board  of  visitation  authorized  by  the  act  has 
been  organized,  "f 

In  1842  a  new  act  was  passed.  This  provided  that  no  child 
under  fifteen  should  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing  establish- 
ment, or  in  any  other  business,  until  he  has  attended  ' '  some  public 
or  private  day  school  where  instruction  is  given  by  a  teacher  quali- 
fied to  instruct  in  orthography,  reading,  writing,  English  grammar, 
geography,  and  arithmetic,  at  least  three  months  of  the  twelve 
months  next  preceding  any  and  every  year  in  which  such  child 
shall  be  so  employed."  The  penalty  fixed  for  violations  was  a  fine 
of  twenty-five  dollars  to  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  state. 
The  only  evidence  authorized  by  the  act  that  the  child  seeking  em- 
ployment had  fulfilled  the  conditions  prescribed  was  a  certificate 
signed  and  sworn  to  by  his  teacher.  Another  provision  fixed  the 
hours  of  labor  for  all  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  at  ten. 
Any  violation  of  this  was  made  punishable  by  a  fine  of  seven  dollars 
for  each  offence.  \ 

This  law  was  a  marked  improvement  over  that  of  1813,  and  if  it 

*  Public  Statute  Laws  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  as  Revised  and  Eiiactei'  by  the  General 
Assembly  in  May,  1S21  (Hartford,  1821),  p.  320. 

t  Quoted  from  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-S9,  Vol.  I.,  p.  487. 

X  Public  Acts  Passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  May  Session, 
1842  (Hartford,  1S42),  pp.  40  and  41. 


38  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

had  had  the  support  of  public  opinion,  probably  it  would  have 
destroyed  the  evil  at  which  it  was  aimed.  But  it  did  not  have  that 
support,  and  soon  it  practically  became  a  dead  letter.  State 
Superintendent  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  in  his  report  for  1866,  says  of  it: 
"In  many  cases  the  proprietors  or  agents  of  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments would  willingly  see  the  provisions  of  the  statute  sustained, 
but  they  are  well  aware  that  the  law  is  not  obeyed  through  the 
state,  and  are  apprehensive  that  they  shall  lose  both  parents 
and  children  as  operatives  if  they  refuse  the  latter  work."^= 

An  important  amendment  was  made  to  the  laws  relating  to  child 
labor  in  1855.  Before  that  date  no  age  limit  had  been  prescribed 
for  children  who  worked  in  factories.  In  this  year  the  General 
Assembly  passed  an  act  requiring  a  child  to  be  at  least  nine  years  of 
age  before  taking  service  in  such  establishments.  In  the  next  year 
this  requirement  was  modified  by  fixing  the  age  at  ten  vears  before 
he  could  be  so  employed,  f 

The  General  Assembly  in  1867  passed  an  act  to  supersede  the 
law  of  1842.  This  fixed  the  penalty  for  employing  children  more 
than  ten  hours  a  day,  or  fifty-eight  hours  per  week,  at  fifty  dollars. 
One  half  of  this  was  to  go  to  the  person  who  had  made  the 
complaint  and  had  successfully  prosecuted  the  case.  The  other 
half  was  to  go  to  the  town  treasury.;}; 

The  defects  of  the  act  of  1842  were  but  partially  remedied 
by  these  ^■arious  acts.      In  i86g  they  brought  about  a  new  employ- 

*  Connecticut  School  Report,  1866,  pp.  82-S3  ;  quoted  here  from  the  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  188S-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  4S7. 

t  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  for  the 
year  ending  November  30,  1S87  (Hartford,  1887),  p.  156. 

The  English  Parliament,  in  1819,  had  fixed  nine  years  and  upwards  as  the  age  at  which 
children  could  be  admitted  to  labor  in  cotton  mills.  The  same  provision  was  made  in  the  .W- 
thorp  Act  of  1833.  There  the  distinction  was  made  which  has  ever  since  been  maintained 
between  "children  admitted  to  work  of  the  ages  nine  to  thirteen,"  and  "  young  persons  "  of 
ages  from  thirteen  to  eighteen  years.  Jevons'  "  The  State  in  its  Relation  to  Labor,"  p.  55. 
Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  Third  Series,  Vol.  XVII.,  p.  85  et  seq.,  gives  a  history  of 
the  legislation  on  this  subject  from  1802  till  1833.  See  also  article  in  Lalor's  "  Cyclopaedia," 
entitled  "  Factory  Laws,"  by  Prof.  E.  J.James,  Vol.  II. 

X  Public  Acts  Passed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  1866  to  1871 
Inclusive  (Hartford,  1S71),  p.  119. 


/;/  N'ew  England.  .  39 

ment  act  which  was  by  far  the  most  important  piece  of  legislation 
yet  enacted  in  this  state  relative  to  child  labor.  The  law  of  1842 
had  forbidden  the  employment  of  children  under  fifteen  years  of 
age  who  had  not  had  three  months'  schooling  the  preceding  year. 
The  law  of  1869  changed  this  limit  to  fourteen.  Just  why  this 
change  was  made  is  not  evident,  but  it  may  have  been  a  concession 
to  employers  and  parents  to  make  the  other  exactions  seem  less 
stringent.  The  remainder  of  the  act  is  much  more  exacting  and 
binding  than  that  of  1842.  By  the  latter  act  only  manufacturers, 
agents,  and  superintendents  could  be  prosecuted  ;  under  the  new 
act  all  employers  were  liable  to  prosecution.  The  penalty  was 
increased  from  twenty  to  one  hundred  dollars.  It  again  impro\'ed 
on  the  act  of  1842,  which  required  boards  of  visitors  to  examine 
into  the  execution  of  the  law  and  report  violations  of  it,  when  it  re- 
quired state  attorneys  and  grand  juries  to  cooperate  with  these. 
But  more  important  than  this  was  that  provision  that  authorized 
the  State  Board  of  Education  to  appoint  one  of  its  number  or  some 
other  suitable  person  as  agent  to  enforce  the  law.*  This  agent  was 
to  be  at  all  times  under  the  control  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. 
The  act  of  1842  had  left  the  execution  of  the  law  to  local  boards, 
which  at  best  meant  that  the  law  would  be  only  partially  enforced. 
The  most  serious  objection  that  might  be  urged  against  the  act 
of  1869  was  destroyed  by  an  act  passed  in  1871.  The  act  of  1869 
took  the  children  out  of  the  factories,  or  kept  them  out  if  they  had 
not  yet  taken  employment.  But  it  did  not  send  them  to  school ; 
this  was  the  purpose  of  the  new  act.  It  provided  that  all  parents  or 
guardians  of  children  who  had  been  employed  in  factories  or  other 
business  and  had  been  temporarily  discharged  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  them  to  school  should  see  that  they  were  put  into 
school.  The  penalty  fixed  for  non-compliance  with  this  provision 
was  five  dollars  for  each  and  every  week  not  exceeding  thirteen 
in    any  one   year.f     This    law,   together   with    the   one    of    1869, 

*  Ibid.,  p.  333. 
t/i^/</.,p.  594. 


40  The  Histo)'}'  of  Compulsory  Education 

made  a  complete  system  of  obligatory  education  so  far  as  the 
factory  children  were  concerned.  There  was  considerable  opposi- 
tion to  it  from  parents  who  were  factory  operatives.*  There 
was  much  justice  in  the  objection  they  urged  against  it.  This 
objection  was  one  of  the  factors  which  brought  about  the  act 
of  1872  establishing  compulsory  education  throughout  the  state 
irrespective  of  class. 

Since  1871  some  important  modifications  have  been  made  in  the 
laws  affecting  factory  children  and  those  employed  in  other  work. 
As  the  law  now  stands  no  child  under  thirteen  years  can  be 
employed  in  any  ' '  mechanical,  mercantile,  or  manufacturing  es- 
tablishment." The  penalty  fixed  for  violation  of  this  provision  by 
employers  or  agents  is  a  fine  not  exceeding  sixty  dollars  ;  and  each 
week  of  such  illegal  employment  is  to  constitute  a  distinct  ofTence. 
The  same  penalty  is  fixed  for  false  certification  of  the  age  of 
any  child  by  his  parent  or  guardian.  The  act  further  provides 
that  ' '  no  child  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  who  has  resided  in 
the  United  States  nine  months,  shall  be  employed  to  labor,  unless 
such  child  shall  have  attended  a  day  school  in  which  instruction  has 
been  regularly  and  thoroughly  given  in  the  branches  of  education 
required  in  the  public  schools  during  at  least  twelve  weeks,  or  sixty 
full  school  days  of  the  twelve  months  next  preceding  any  year 
in  which  such  child  shall  be  so  employed,  nor  unless  six  weeks 
at  least  of  this  attendance  have  been  consecutive.  Any  person  who 
shall  employ  a  child  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  section  shall 
be  fined  not  more  than  sixty  dollars."  f 

Legislation  on  this  subject  did  not  begin  so  soon  in  Massachu- 
setts as  in  Connecticut.     The  first  act  passed  in  this  state  was  in 

*Dr.  B.  G.  Northrop,  who  was  State  Superintendent  at  the  time  this  statute  was  passed, 
said  of  it:  "The  only  objection  made  to  this  law,  within  my  knowledge,  is  its  limitation 
to  the  parents  and  guardians  of  those  children  who  are  hired  out.  They  ask,  '  While  we  are 
justly  required  to  send  our  children  to  school,  why  are  the  parents  of  children  unemployed,  it 
may  be  the  idle  and  vicious,  excused  ?  '  This  has  the  look  of  class  legislation.  Make  this 
law  impartial  and  universal  in  its  obligation,  and  you  remove  the  only  real  objection  as  yet 
urged  against  it." — Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  iSS8-8g,  Vol.  I.,  p.  4Sy. 

\ Ibid.,  p.  488. 


In  Ncxv  England.  41 

1836.  The  imniigration  of  a  manufacturino-  and  foreign  population 
had  destroyed  the  former  honiooeneity  of  the  people.  Where 
formerly  there  had  been  unanimity  of  thought  and  action  in  matters 
pertaining  to  education,  there  were  now  many  differing  opinions. 
Society  was  diyided  into  sects  and  classes,  not  all  of  which 
espoused  the  cause  of  popular  education.  Some  indeed  antago- 
nized such  a  system.  The  system  which  had  answered  the  needs  of 
this  commonwealth  almost  from  the  day  when  it  was  first  settled 
began  to  lose  its  yitality.  It  was  seemingly  unable  to  deal  with 
the  problem.  In  1834,  ^darmed  at  the  condition  which  confronted 
it,  the  state  made  proyision  for  a  public  school  fund,  and  two 
years  later  passed  the  act  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 
This  act  was  approyed  by  the  governor  April  16,  1836,  but  it  did 
not  go  into  effect  until  April  i,  1837.  It  provided  that  no  child 
under  fifteen  years  should  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing 
establishment  unless  he  had  attended  some  public  or  private  day 
school  kept  by  some  qualified  teacher  at  least  three  months  of  the 
twelve  immediately  preceding  the  year  in  which  he  was  employed. 
Employers  were  made  liable  to  a  fine  of  fifty  dollars,  which  was 
to  be  paid  into  the  town  treasury  for  the  use  of  the  schools  for 
violating  this  provision. -■- 

This  was  a  more  advanced  step  than  Connecticut  had  yet  taken, 
but  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  a  much  greater  one  than 
that  taken  by  England  in  the  Hobhouse  and  Althorp  Acts  of  1825 
and  1833.  The  first  of  these  made  a  more  thorough  restriction  of 
the  labor  of  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  provided  for  a 
"quarter-holiday"  on  Saturday.  By  the  act  of  1833  the  education 
of  factory  children  was  made  compulsory.  Children  were  not 
to  work  more  than  nine  hours  each  day,  and  were  required  tO' 
spend  two  more  hours  daily  in  school,  f 

*  Laws  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  1S36  (Boston,  1S36),  p.  950. 

t"  It  is  said  that  this  '  half-time'  principle  was  quite  accidentally  discovered.  Some  means 
being  sought  whereby  evidence  should  be  available  that  a  child  was  not  working  at  a  certain 
hour,  it  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Chadwick  that  presence  in  school  would  afford  the  best 
possible  evidence." — Jevons,  pp.  55  and 56. 


42  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

Massachusetts  modified  this  act  of  1S36,  in  1837  or  1838,  so  as  to 
release  employers  from  liability  to  punishment,  in  case  they  were 
provided  with  sworn  certificates  that  the  children  in  their  employ 
had  attended  school  the  length  of  time  specified  in  the  statute.* 
Horace  Mann,  who  was  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
from  the  date  of  its  organization  in  1837  till  1848,  wrote  earnestly 
of  this  law  in  his  report  for  1840.  He  urged  the  necessity  of 
"limiting  the  greed  of  both  heartless  employers  and  unnatural 
parents."  f  In  1842  legislation  was  effected  limiting  the  hours  of 
labor  of  children  under  twelve  to  ten  each  day.  This  was  not 
up  to  the  standard  set  by  either  the  Connecticut  law  of  the 
same  year,  or  the  English  act  of  1833.  The  Connecticut  law  had 
limited  the  hours  of  labor  of  children  under  fourteen  to  ten.'|  The 
English  act  went  one  step  further  and  limited  the  hours  of  labor  for 
children  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  thirteen  to  nine  hours.  |1 

From  this  date  until  1866  most  of  the  legislation  relating  to 
obligatory  education  had  reference  to  the  truancy  problem,  which 
had  now  become  an  exceedingly  troublesome  one.§  However,  in 
1865,  an  act  requiring  eighteen  weeks  of  all  working  children 
under  twelve,  and  twelve  weeks  of  all  between  twelve  and  fifteen, 
was  passed.  In  this  same  year  a  resolution  was  passed  by  the 
legislature  authorizing  the  governor  to  appoint  a  committee  ' '  to 
collect  information  and  statistics  in  regard  to  the  hours  of  labor, 
and  the  conditions  and  prospects  of  the  industrial  classes."  This 
committee  was  appointed  by  Governor  Andrew  in  February  of  the 
next  year.  The  commissioners  first  considered  the  education  of 
children,  and  said  in  their  report,  "A  saddening  amount  of  testi- 
mony has  been  brought  before  the  commissioners  concerning  the 

♦Seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  of  Massachusetts,  1S76 
(Boston,  1876),  p.  264. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  267. 

J  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  for  the 
year  ending  November  30,  1887,  p.  156. 

II  Supra,  p.  41 . 

§  Chapter  IV.  of  this  monograph  is  devoted  to  legislation  on  this  question  in  Massachusetts. 


In  Nc7v  lingland.  43 

frequent  and  gross  violations  of  the  law."*  The  committee  favored 
the  "half-time"  svstem  and  recommended  the  adoi)tion  of  some 
plan  that  would  lead  to  it  if  it  were  deemed  best  not  to  adopt  it  in 
detail.  As  an  inducement  to  this  they  further  recommended  that 
where  the  "half-time"  system  was  adopted  and  carried  out  in 
good  faith  the  laws  then  in  force  pertaining  to  working  children 
should  not  be  considered  binding. -j-  These  recommendations  of  the 
committee  were  not  embodied  in  a  statute.  But  the  same  year  that 
this  report  was  made,  the  most  important  piece  of  legislation 
yet  given  to  Massachusetts  on  this  subject  was  enacted.  Under  its 
provisions  no  child  under  the  age  of  ten  could  be  employed  in  any 
manufacturing  establishment.  Between  the  ages  of  ten  and  four- 
teen years,  no  child  could  be  so  employed  unless  he  had  attended 
some  public  or  private  day  school  for  not  less  than  six  months 
of  the  year  preceding  that  in  which  his  employment  would  begin. 
This  school  must  have  been  approved  by  the  school  committee 
of  the  place  in  which  it  was  located.  Any  one  knowingly  employ- 
ing a  child  who  had  not  had  this  school  training  was  made 
liable  to  punishment  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  dollars.  The  act 
made  one  other  important  provision.  Children  under  the  age  of 
fourteen  who  were  employed  in  manufacturing  establishments  under 
the  conditions  already  specified  were  not  to  spend  more  than  eight 
hours  in  labor  in  any  one  day.  Parents  and  guardians  were  made 
responsible  for  any  violations  of  this  restriction,  under  penalty  of  a 
fine  not  exceeding  fifty  dollars  for  each  offence.  |  In  the  next  year, 
1867,  another  act  relating  to  the  education  and  the  hours  of  labor 
of  children  employed  in  "manufacturing  and  mechanical  establish- 
ments" was  passed.  This  act  provided,  as  the  one  of  1866  had 
done,  that  no  child  under  the  age  of  ten  could  be  employed  in  any 
manufacturing  or  mechanical  establishment.  Between  this  age  and 
fifteen  children  could  only  be  employed  after  they   had   attended 


♦Seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistits  of  Labor  of  Massachusetts,  iS66,  p.  273. 

\  Ibid.,  p.  273. 

t  Acts  of  Massachusetts,  1S66,  Chap.  273. 


44  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

some  public  or  private  day  school  under  teachers  approved  by  the 
school  committee  of  the  place  where  the  school  was  located,  for  at 
least  three  months  of  the  year  preceding  the  one  in  which  employ- 
ment was  taken.  They  must  also  have  resided  six  months  in 
the  state  preceding  the  time  their  employment  began.  The  school 
requirement  was  to  continue  every  year  until  the  age  of  fifteen, 
"  Provided  that  tuition  of  three  hours  per  day  in  a  public  or  private 
day  school  approved  by  the  school  committee  of  the  place  in  which 
such  school  is  kept,  during  a  term  of  six  months,  shall  be  deemed 
the  equivalent  of  three  months'  attendance  at  a  school  kept  in 
accordance  with  the  customary  hours  of  tuition  ;  and  no  time  less 
than  sixty  days  of  actual  schooling  shall  be  accounted  as  three 
months,  and  no  time  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  half-days  of 
actual  schooling  shall  be  deemed  an  equivalent  of  three  months."* 

In  1869  an  act  was  passed  which  authorized  towns  and  cities  to 
establish  and  maintain  evening  schools  for  children  over  twelve 
years  of  age  ;  f  and  three  years  later  they  were  given  the  privilege 
and  the  authority  to  establish  evening  schools.  % 

Legislation  on  this  subject  since  1872  to  the  present  time  has  in 
principle  been  much  as  that  found  in  the  acts  of  1866  and  1867.  In 
1873,  when  the  new  compulsory  attendance  and  truant  laws  were 
passed,  a  new  act  was  introduced  at  the  same  session  of  the 
legislature  to  further  regulate  the  problem  of  child  labor.  But  it 
failed  to  pass.  It  was  offered  in  the  next  two  succeeding  sessions 
but  was  not  enacted  into  a  law.  However,  in  1876  it  became 
a  statute.     The  main  feature  of  this  law  was  that  it  made  the  pre- 

*  Acts  of  1867,  Chap.  285. 

t  Acts  of  1869,  Chap.  305. 

JActs  of  1872,  Chap.  86.  The  history  of  evening  schools  in  Massachusetts  dates  back 
101773.  In  that  year,  such  schools  were  carried  on  in  Salem  "to  teach  a  limited  number 
of  poor  boys  the  mariner's  art,  and  others  to  write  and  cipher."  In  1836  an  evening  school 
was  established  at  the  Warren  Street  Chapel  in  Boston,  in  connection  with  philanthropic 
Christian  work.  In  1847  legislative  enactment  authorized  towns  to  support  such  schools  for 
adults,  and  in  1857,  while  leaving  the  support  of  such  schools  optional,  they  were  made  by 
legislation  an  integral  part  of  the  public  school  system.  "  In  1883  their  support  became  com- 
pulsory in  towns  having  ten  thousand  inhabitants."  See  Martin's  "  Evolution  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Public  School  System,"  pp.  21S  and  219. 


In  New  Jiiio/and.  45 

vious  legislation  on  this  subject  apply  to  mercantile  establishments 
as  well  as  to  manufactories  and  mechanical  enterprises.  This 
action  was  taken  because  of  the  large  number  of  small  boys  who 
had  taken  employment  in  the  large  retail  stores  as  cash  boys  and 
errand  boys.*  The  essential  difference  between  this  statute  and 
those  of  1866  and  1867  was  that  it  applied  to  children  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  fourteen,  whereas  in  the  latter  statutes  the  age 
limit  was  from  ten  to  fifteen  years.  These  latter  laws  had  been 
modified  by  the  compulsory  law  of  1873.  This  had  extended  the 
time  of  required  school  attendance  to  twenty  weeks. f  This  pro- 
vision was  likewise  extended  to  the  new  law. 

The  next  law  was  one  passed  in  1888.  This  prohibited  the 
employment  of  any  child  under  thirteen  years  of  age  ' '  in  any 
factory,  workshop,  or  mercantile  establishment."  Neither  could 
such  a  child  be  employed  in  any  indoor  work,  for  wages,  during 
the  hours  when  the  public  schools  of  the  place  where  he  resides 
were  in  session  unless  he  had  attended  school  ' '  for  at  least 
twenty  weeks  as  required  by  law. ' '  Children  under  fourteen  years 
of  age  could  be  employed  in  factories,  workshops,  or  mercantile 
establishments  only  during  the  vacation  of  the  public  schools  of  the 
place  where  they  resided,  unless  the  employer  kept  on  file  an 
"employment-ticket"  and  an  "age  and  schooling  ticket."  The 
former  ticket  gave  a  description  of  the  child  to  be  employed,  and 
contained  a  declaration  of  the  employer's  or  agent's  intention  to 
employ  him.  The  latter  was  a  sworn  statement  made  by  the 
father,  mother,  or  guardian  of  the  child  as  to  his  age  and  to  the 
effect  that  the  requirements  of  the  law  as  to  schooling  had  been 
fully  satisfied.  % 


*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1S8S-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  475. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  474. 

t  "  Labor  Laws  of  Massachusetts,"  compiled  by  Horace  G.  Wadlin,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  (Boston,  1890),  pp.  78-79. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Truancy  Problem  in  Massachusetts. 
1845-1S90. 

The  truancy  problem  in  Massachusetts  had  become  a  very 
perplexing  one  as  early  as  1845.  It  is  stated  in  the  school  report 
of  Boston  for  that  year  that  the  absences  from  the  schools  of  the 
city,  each  day,  were  about  one  fifth  of  the  whole  number  of  children 
who  should  have  been  in  attendance.  A  part  of  these  absences 
may  be  explained  on  the  ground  that  children  employed  in  factories 
had  complied  with  the  provisions  of  the  statute  of  1842.*  But 
as  this  statute  was  never  enforced  to  any  great  extent  it  is  safe 
to  presume  that  many  of  the  absences  were  violations  of  its  pro- 
visions. However,  there  was  another  class  of  children  who  were 
not  in  school,  and  to  whom  the  provisions  of  this  statute  did  not 
apply.  These  were  the  children  who  were  deprived  of  instruction 
either  by  the  poverty  or  neglect  of  their  parents,  or  by  their 
own  perversity. 

In  1846  measures  began  to  be  taken  to  secure  the  education 
of  this  class.  The  year  previous,  Josiah  Quincy  had  taken  the  in- 
itiative that  led  to  these  measures.  In  1845  he  became  mayor  of 
Boston.  Soon  after  his  installation  in  office,  he  called  the  attention 
of  the  school  committee  to  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  of  truancy, 
and  urged  the  cooperation  of  the  committee  with  the  city  council  in 
devising  coercive  measures  as  remedies.  The  school  committee  re- 
ferred the  subject  to  a  special  committee.  Theophilus  Parsons, 
who  was  made  Dane  professor  of  law  in  Harvard  in  1847,  was 
appointed  chairman  of  this  committee.      Professor  Parsons  reported 

*  Supra,  p.  37. 


Ccvnpit/sory  Education  in  A\'w  England.  47 

for  the  committee  the  next  year.  In  this  rei)ort  he  maintained  that 
the  existing  laws  were  sufficient  to  correct  the  evils  if  they  were 
properly  executed.  Under  these  laws  "stubborn  children"  could 
be  sent  to  the  House  of  Correction.  By  them,  too,  authority  was 
given  to  any  justice  of  the  courts  on  application  of  the  mayor,  any 
of  the  aldermen  of  the  city,  any  director  of  the  House  of  Industry 
or  House  of  Reformation,  or  of  any  overseer  of  the  poor,  to 
sentence  to  the  House  of  Reformation  "all  children  who  live  an 
idle  and  dissolute  life,  whose  parents  are  dead,  or  if  living,  from 
drunkenness  or  other  vices  neglect  to  provide  any  suitable 
employment  or  exercise  any  salutary  control  over  said  children." 
By  the  same  procedure,  authority  was  given  for  the  transfer  of  any 
child  who  had  been  committed  to  the  House  of  Correction,  to  the 
House  of  Reformation.* 

The  committee  proposed  as  a  plan  of  action  that  police  officers 
should  ascertain  what  children  had  failed  to  enter  their  names  at 
schools  and  if  that  failure  was  due  to  regular  and  proper  employ- 
ment, or  to  other  legitimate  excuse.  The  plan  further  required 
that  the  names  of  "all  incorrigibly  stubborn  or  habitually  truant 
children"  who  had  regularly  entered  their  names  upon  the  school 
register  should  be  reported  monthly  to  the  city  government  by  the 
various  teachers.  To  aid  in  securing  the  execution  of  the  plan  the 
following  orders  were  appended  to  the  report  for  the  consideration 
of  the  school  committee  : 

"  I.  Ordered,  That  the  several  masters  of  the  grammar  and 
writing  departments  of  the  grammar  schools  report  to  the  mayor  of 
the  city,  in  the  first  weeks  of  May  and  December  of  each  year,  the 
names  of  the  children  belonging  to  each  school. 

"2.  Ordered,  That  the  several  masters  of  the  grammar  and 
writing  departments  of  the  grammar  schools  report  to  the  mayor, 
on  the  first  Monday  of  each  month,  beginning  with  June  next, 
whether  there  be  in  the  school  under  their  care  any  children  who 


•Supplementary  Report  on  Truancy  and  Compulsory  Education,  by  John   D.  Philbrick,  in 
the  Annual  Report  of  the  School  Committee  of  Boston,  1861,  p.  214. 


48  The  Histo)'y  of  Compulsory  Education 

are  incorrigibly  stubborn  or  habitually  truant  ;  and  if  so,  their 
names,  and  their  residences,  and  the  names  of  their  parents  when 
known. 

"  3.  Ordered,  That  this  and  the  two  preceding  orders,  together 
with  the  third  section  of  the  'Act  Concerning  Juvenile  Offenders 
in  the  City  of,  Boston,'  be  printed  in  large  letters  and  conspicu- 
ously posted  in  each  grammar  school  ;  and  that  the  same  be  read 
to  the  assembled  scholars  by  the  masters,  on  the  first  Monday  of 
■each  month."* 

With  some  slight  modification  in  the  wording,  these  orders 
became  a  part  of  the  "  rules  of  regulation  of  the  schools  "  in  May, 
1846.  In  part  they  remained  in  force  until  1857.  In  the  revision 
■of  the  rules  in  1848  the  third  order  was  omitted.  The  first  was 
repealed  in  1851,  and  the  words  "beginning  with  June  next,"  in 
the  second,  were  struck  out.  Other  changes  were  made  in  1852 
and  1855.  In  1857  the  order  was  made  to  read:  "Teachers 
having  charge  of  pupils  who  are  habitually  truant  shall  report 
their  names,  residences,  and  the  names  of  their  parents  or 
;guardians  to  the  truant  officers  of  the  district,  "f 

The  evils  of  truancy  were  not  confined  to  the  Boston  schools. 
They  were  felt  in  other  cities  and  towns  of  the  state,  and  in  some  of 
them  were  the  subject  of  much  earnest  discussion.  Mr.  Horace 
Mann,  then  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  fully  appre- 
ciated the  magnitude  of  these  evils,  and  made  them  important 
themes  in  his  various  reports.  These  discussions  had  their  influ- 
ence. By  1848  they  had  developed  considerable  sentiment 
throughout  the  state  favorable  to  legislation  by  the  General  Court 
making  truancy  a  criminal  offence  punishable  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. Boston  took  an  important  step  in  this  year  toward  securing 
such  legislation.  Mayor  Quincy  again  called  the  attention  of  the 
city  government  to  the   magnitude  of  the   evils.      He   urged  the 


*  The  third  section  of  the  "Act  Concerning  Juvenile  Offenders  of  the  City  of  Boston  "  is 
ithe  one  referred  to  on  page  47. 

t  Philbrick's  Report  on  Truancy,  in  Boston  School  R'    ort,  1861,  p.  215. 


///  New  England. 

necessity  of  more  eflective  measures  in  dealing-  with  truants.  It 
does  not  appear  tliat  his  recommendation  met  with  any  action 
by  the  city  council.  But  at  a  mcetino'  of  the  school  committee, 
November  15,  an  order  was  passed  authorizing  the  appointment  of 
a  committee  to  consider  the  evils  of  truancy  and  to  report  measures 
to  be  taken  to  lessen  it.  The  committee  made  their  report  Decem- 
ber 20.  They  submitted  a  list  of  all  ' '  vagrant  and  truant  children' ' 
in  the  city  and  recommended  that  the  expediency  of  petitioning  the 
legislature  for  new  and  more  stringent  laws  be  referred  to  the  new 
board  which  would  be  organized  in  January,  1849. 

Soon  after  the  installation  of  the  new  board,  an  order  was  passed 
calling  on  Mayor  Bigelow  for  information  relative  to  what  had  been 
done  by  the  city  government  toward  securing  the  regular  attend- 
ance of  all  children  who  were  not  members  of  private  schools  at  the 
public  schools.  The  order  contained  the  still  more  important  pro- 
vision authorizing  the  mayor  ' '  to  apply  to  the  legislature  for 
all  necessary  power  to  secure  the  attendance  of  such  scholars."  In 
response  to  this  order,  a  report  which  had  been  submitted  to  the 
mayor  by  the  city  marshall  w^as  laid  before  the  committee  February 
7,  1849.  This  report  did  not  pretend  to  be  complete.  It  stated 
that  statistics  had  been  obtained  of  ten  hundred  and  sixty-six 
truant  and  vagrant  children.  These  children  were  between  the 
ages  of  six  and  sixteen  years.  Of  the  number  reported,  eight  hun- 
dred and  eighty-two  were  males  and  one  hundred  and  eighty-four 
females.  The  marshall  also  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  complete 
statistics  would  reveal  no  less  than  fifteen  hundred  children  of  this 
class  in  the  city.* 

Through  the  medium  of  the  public  press,  the  contents  of  this  re- 
port were  widely  disseminated.  The  attention  of  the  public  having 
been  thus  directed  to  the  evil,  legislative  action  was  demanded. 
The  school  committee  of  Boston,  at  its  meeting  of  March  7,  passed 
an  order  requesting  the  city  government  to  devise  immediately 
such  measures  as  were  nec(#csary  to  secure  the  regular  attendance  of 

*  Ibid.,  p.  222.  ^ 


50  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

all  idle  and  truant  children  of  the  city  at  school.  About  this  time 
also  a  bill  which  had  been  prepared  by  a  committee  appointed 
by  the  school  board,  and  of  other  gentlemen,  was  introduced  in  the 
legislature  dealing  with  the  question.-'^  Certain  members  of  the 
legislature,  however,  were  opposed  to  a  compulsory  law,  and  their 
influence  was  sufficient  to  defeat  the  bill. 

The  teachers  of  the  state  now  took  up  the  question  and  ad- 
vocated the  principles  of  the  rejected  bill.  In  November,  1849, 
the  State  Teachers'  Association  convened  at  Worcester.  At  this 
meeting  Joshua  Bates,  Jr.,  of  Boston,  gave  an  address  favoring  the 
enactment  of  a  law  for  the  prevention  of  ' '  truancy  and  irregular  at- 
tendance upon  school."  The  address  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
teachers.  John  D.  Philbrick  introduced  a  resolution  to  the  effect 
that  the  association  endorsed  the  object  contemplated  in  the 
address,  and  that  the  members  should  deem  it  their  duty  to  use 
their  influence  to  secure  its  accomplishment.  Earnest  discussion 
followed  the  introduction  of  this  resolution.  Professor  Agassiz 
taking  part  in  it.  The  resolution  was  not  endorsed.  In  its  stead  a 
more  practical  one  was  adopted.  This  asked  for  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  of  five  ' '  to  petition  the  General  Court  to  enact 
a  law  upon  the  subject  of  Truancy."  | 

Public  opinion  had  by  this  time  become  thoroughly  prepared  for 
coercive  measures.  The  efforts  of  the  committee  were  not  un- 
availing. On  May  3,  1850,  the  General  Court  enacted  a  law 
authorizing  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  commonwealth  ' '  to  make  all 
needful  provisions  and  arrangements  concerning  habitual  truants 
and  children  not  attending  school,  without  any  regular  and  lawful 
occupation,  growing  up  in  ignorance,  between  the  ages  of  six 
and  fifteen  years."  Authority  was  given  likewise  for  the  enact- 
ment of  such  municipal  ordinanc.es  relative  to  this  class  of  children 
as  should   "be  deemed  most  conducive  to  their  welfare  and    the 

*  Ibid.,  p.  224. 

fThis  committee  consisted  of  W.  D.  Swan  of  Boston,  the  mover  of  the  resohition,  Elbridge 
Smith  of  Cambridge,  C.  Northend  of  Salem,  C.  S.  Pennell  of  Charlestown,  and  Levi  Reed  of 
Roxbury.     Afterwards  Josliua  Bates,  Jr.,  and  T.  Sherwin  were  added  to  it. 


In  Nciv  England.  51 

good  order  of  such  city."  Such  ordinances,  however,  must  have 
been  approved  by  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  The  statute  gave 
authority,  too,  for  the  appointment  of  three  or  more  persons  whose 
duty  it  was  to  make  complaint  to  any  justice  of  the  peace,  or 
any  other  judicial  offtcer,  of  all  violations  of  the  ordinances.  The 
justices  were  not  required  to  assess  the  fine  in  case  the  violation 
was  proved  but  in  their  discretion  could  confine  the  offender  for 
such  time  as  they  deemed  expedient,  in  "such  institution  of  in- 
struction or  house  of  reformation,  or  other  suitable  situation,  as 
may  be  assigned  or  provided  for  the  purpose."*  In  July  of  this 
same  year,  the  school  committee  of  Boston  requested  the  city 
council  to  enact  such  ordinances  as  would  enable  it  to  avail  itself  of 
the  provisions  of  this  statute.  It  was  not  until  October  21  that 
this  was  done.  Then  with  the  approval  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  for  the  county  of  Suffolk,  the  necessary  ordinance  was  passed. 
The  third  section  of  this  ordinance  set  apart  the  "House  for 
the  Employment  and  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Offenders"  as  the 
"institution  of  instruction"  specified  in  the  statute. f  It  was  not, 
however,  till  1852  that  truant  officers  were  appointed.  This  delay 
was  due  to  the  objection  in  the  minds  of  some  relative  to  two 
features  of  the  law.  The  law  gave  to  the  court  authority  for 
assessing  the  fine,  but  in  case  of  its  non-payment,  it  prescribed  no 
action  on  the  part  of  the  court  for  enforcing  it.  Again,  should  the 
court  having  jurisdiction  sentence  the  culprit  to  the  institution  pro- 
vided, instead  of  assessing  a  fine,  the  period  of  the  confinement  was 
left  to  the  discretion  of  the  judicial  officer.  These  objections  were 
both  overcome  by  the  statute  of  1852.  This  gave  authority  to  the 
judicial  officer  in  case  of  default  of  the  payment  of  the  fine,  to 
confine  the  culprit  in  the  institution  provided  for  a  term  not 
to  exceed  one  year.  At  the  discretion  of  the  court,  punishment  by 
confinement  might  be  given  as  the  original  sentence,  instead  of  a 
fine.      In  this  event,  as  in  the  punishment  inflicted  for  non-payment 

*  Statutes  of  1850,  Chap.  294. 

t  Philbrick's  Report  on  Truancy,  in  Boston  School  Report,  1861,  p.  215. 


52  The  History  of  Coinpiilsoiy  Education 

of  the  fine,  the  term  of  confinement  was  not  to  exceed  one  year.* 
Boston,  after  the  enactment  of  the  statute  of  1852,  made  arrange- 
ment for  the  enforcement  of  its  provisions.  The  House  for  the 
Employment  and  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Offenders  was  set  apart 
by  city  ordinance  as  the  institution  which  the  act  specified  should 
be  provided. f  In  April  of  1853,  the  report  of  the  truant  officers  of 
the  city  of  Boston  was  made.  In  this  report  objection  was  made  to 
the  lenity  with  which  the  court  fixed  the  term  of  confinement. 
One  otificer  remarks:  "One  great  objection  to  the  truant  law 
is  the  term  of  service  being  limited  to  one  year,  and  I  think 
it  should  be  so  amended  that  they  [the  truants]  could  be  sent  for  an 
unlimited  time."  %  Most  of  the  sentences  had  been  for  either  three 
or  six  months.  In  the  case  of  the  more  hardened  delinquents  there 
was  little,  if  any,  improvement  on  the  expiration  of  their  sentence. 
The  matter  was  again  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  General 
Court.  A  third  act  since  1850  was  passed  in  this  year  dealing  with 
truancy. 

The  new  statute  was  a  great  improvement  over  the  former  ones 
in  at  least  two  particulars.  It  gave  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  state 
authority  to  transfer  jurisdiction  from  the  courts  that  had  had 
it  under  the  other  two  acts,  to  the  police  courts.  It  also  extended 
the  term  for  which  an  offender  might  be  confined  to  two  years.  || 

In  the  next  year,  an  act  was  passed  concerning  truants  in 
Boston.  The  only  provision  contained  in  this  statute  that  is 
not  found  in  the  earlier  statutes  applying  to  all  of  the  municipalities 
of  the  state  related  to  minors  who  had  neither  parent  nor  guardian. 
It  gave  to  the  police  justices  authority  to  discharge  such  persons, 
if  a  fine  had  been  assessed  for  violation  of  the  provisions  relating 
to  truancy,  on  proof  that  they  were  without  means  to  pay  it.§ 

♦Statutes  of  1852,  Chap.  283. 

•j-"  The  House  for  the  Employment  and  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Offenders  "  was  established 
in  South  Boston  in  1826.     Later  it  was  removed  to  Deer  Island, 
t  Quoted  from  Philbrick's  Report  on  Truancy,  in  Boston  School  Report,  1S61,  p.  233. 
II  Statutes  of  1S53,  Chap.  343. 
I  Statutes  of  1854,  Chap.  88. 


In  Nciv  England.  53 

By  1859  the  various  provisions  of  these  laws  were  consoH(hited 
into  a  general  statute.  This  gave  the  towns  and  cities  the  authority 
to  make  such  provisions  as  were  needful  concerning  truants  and 
children  growing  up  in  ignorance.  The  law  applied  to  all  children 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  sixteen.  It  also  increased  the  power 
of  the  truant  officers.  By  it,  they  were  not  only  to  make  com- 
plaint, but  they  were  to  carry  into  execution  the  judgments  of  the 
courts.  The  courts  too  were  given  greater  authority  in  passing 
sentence  than  they  had  had  formerly.  They  could  fine  the  delin- 
quent, or  sentence  him  to  an  institution  of  instruction  or  reforma- 
tion as  under  the  previous  laws.  They  were  not  required  to 
do  either.  In  their  discretion  the  sentence  might  be  the  providing 
of  the  delinquent  with  a  situation  for  work.* 

This  law  remained  in  force  till  1862.  Then  a  new  law  was 
enacted  essentially  modifying  the  previous  statute.  The  various 
statutes  enacted  from  1850  till  this  time  had  never  been  put  into 
execution  in  many  parts  of  the  state.  They  had  failed  to  accom- 
plish their  purpose  for  the  reason  that  it  was  made  optional 
with  municipalities  whether  or  not  they  should  enact  ordinances 
to  enforce  them.  Thus  they  had  never  been  given  a  fair  trial,  and 
for  this  reason  had  done  but  little  in  the  way  of  correcting  the  evils 
of  truancy. 

The  new  law  gave  to  ' '  each  city  and  town ' '  the  authority  to 
make  ' '  all  needful  provisions  and  arrangements  concerning  habit- 
ual truants,  and  also  concerning  children  wandering  about  in  the 
streets  or  public  places  of  any  city  or  town,  having  no  lawful 
occupation  or  business,  not  attending  school  and  growing  up  in 
ignorance,  "t  Besides  making  it  mandatory  on  the  towns  and 
cities  to  make  this  provision,  it  more  clearly  defined  than  had  been 
done  heretofore  the  distinction  between  truancy  and  absenteeism. 
Lastly,  the  ages  of  children  to  which  the  law  applied  was  from 
seven  to  sixteen.      In  the  previous  statutes  it  had  been  applied  to 

*  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  472. 
t  Statutes  of  1862,  Chap.  207. 


54  The  History  of  Covipulsory  Ediication 

all  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  sixteen.  Just  why  this 
change  was  made  is  not  apparent.  If  a  child  at  the  age  of  five  or 
six  is  old  enough  to  wander  "about  in  the  streets  or  public  places," 
he  is  certainly  old  enough  to  be  amenable  to  a  law  that  will  take 
him  from  them,  and  put  him  where  he  will  be  under  less  corrupting 
influences. 

In  compliance  with  the  act  of  1862,  quite  a  large  number  of  the 
cities  and  towns  enacted  ordinances  to  enforce  the  statute.  But 
when  compared  with  the  total  number  of  such  municipalities  in  the 
state,  this  number  was  small.  Out  of  three  hundred  and  thirty-five 
towns  and  cities  in  1865,  but  seventy-seven  had  made  provisions  for 
the  appointment  of  truant  officers.*  In  the  next  year  the  number 
was  ninety-eight. t  Before  the  end  of  the  year  1862  Boston 
had  found  it  difficult  to  enforce  the  law.  It  was  defective  in  that  it 
did  not  specify  what  court  should  have  jurisdiction  in  cases  arising 
under  it.  In  the  year  following,  the  General  Court  passed  a 
new  act  remedying  the  defect.  By  this,  jurisdiction  was  given 
to  "  either  of  the  justices  of  the  police  court  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
and  any  judge  or  justice  of  any  police  court,  and  any  trial  justice  in 
this  state. ' '  % 

With  this  modification  relating  to  the  city  of  Boston,  the  law 
of  1862  remained  substantially  as  it  was  when  enacted  till  1873. 
Then  the  laws  relating  to  truancy  were  reconstructed,  and  several 
improvements  made.  The  truant  officers  were  made  the  agents  of 
the  school  committees  instead  of  the  municipality.  The  provision 
making  truancy  punishable  by  a  fine  was  omitted,  and  for  the  first 
time  the  municipalities  were  required  ' '  to  provide  suitable  places 
for  the  '  confinement,  discipline,  and  instruction '  of  truant  chil- 
dren." ||  Besides  these  changes,  it  was  made  the  duty  of  the 
county  commissioners  on   the  request  of  three  or  more  cities  or 

*  Rice's  Report,  p.  70. 

t  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  473. 

\  Statutes  of  1863,  Chap.  44. 

II  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1S88-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  474. 


In  New  E)iqiand.  55 

towns  in  any  county  to  provide  other  places  for  the  reception 
of  truants  than  the  county  jail  or  house  of  correction.  This  took 
from  truancy  the  criminal  character  which  had  been  given  to  it 
in  all  the  previous  legislation  on  the  subject.  Heretofore,  the 
efforts  of  the  state  had  been  in  the  direction  of  punishment.  Now 
this  was  changed,  and  its  efforts  were  directed  toward  reformation. 

The  same  tardiness  was  manifested  by  the  towns  in  putting  this 
law  into  execution  as  had  been  with  the  law  of  1862.  Where  it 
was  enforced  it  pro\'ed  fairly  efficient,  and  greatly  lessened  the  evils 
at  which  it  was  directed.  But  in  1875,  only  one  hundred  and  thirty 
towns  out  of  three  hundred  and  forty-one  in  the  state  had  ap- 
pointed truant  officers.*  To  induce  the  towns  to  comply  with 
the  provisions  of  the  law,  it  was  enacted  in  1878  that  all  towns  fail- 
ing to  make  the  required  provisions  should  forfeit  their  share  of  the 
income  of  the  school  fund.  This  provision  had  the  desired  efTect. 
In  1879  two  hundred  and  fourteen  towns  were  reported  as  enforcing 
the  law.f 

In  1 88 1  provision  was  made  by  the  General  Court  for  the  estab- 
ment  of  union  truant  schools  in  certain  counties.  The  privilege 
was  extended  in  1884  to  two,  three,  or  four  adjoining  counties.  | 
At  the  end  of  the  year  of  1890-91,  county  truant  schools  had 
been  established  in  Essex,  Berkshire,  Hampshire,  Hampden,  and 
Worcester,  and  the  counties  of  Bristol,  Norfolk,  and  Plymouth 
had  combined  in  the  establishment  of  a  union  truant  school.  || 

An  amendment  was  made  to  the  truant  law  in  1889,  which 
abolished  poverty  as  an  exemption  from  complying  with  the  law. 
At  the  same  time  some  slight  changes  in  the  sections  relating  to 
the  duty  of  truant  officers  were  made.  The  officers  still  remained 
the  agents  of  the  school  committees.  It  was  also  their  duty  to 
inquire  into  the  reasons  of  the  failure  of  any  to  comply  with  the 


*  Ibid.,  p.  474. 
\Ibid.,  p.  475. 
X  Ibid.,  p.  478. 
II  Fifty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education  (Massachusetts),  1890-91,  p.  260. 


56         History  of  Compjdsory  Education  in  New  England. 

provisions  of  the  general  compulsory  law.*  Under  the  direction  of 
the  school  committees,  they  were  required  to  prosecute,  in  the  name 
of  the  municipality,  such  violations  as  came  to  their  notice.  Juris- 
diction of  all  such  cases  was  given  to  ' '  police,  district,  and  munici- 
pal courts";  trial  justices  and  judges  of  the  probate  courts  were 
also  to  have  "jurisdiction  within  their  respective  counties. "f 

This  law,  with  the  provisions  for  the  employment  of  children  and 
the  general  compulsory  law,  makes  a  complete  obligatory  system. 
In  the  main,  they  are  all  well  enforc,ed.  State  Superintendent  John 
W.  Dickinson  writes  to  the  commissioner  of  education  under  date 
of  January  27,  1890,  as  follows:  "The  compulsory  law  operates 
well,  and  is  generally  obeyed.  The  employment  law  is  quite  thor- 
oughly enforced.  There  is  not  much  temptation  in  rural  districts 
to  break  these  laws,  so  not  so  much  stringency  is  required  to 
enforce  them  as  in  cities. ";{: 

*  See  Chapter  V.  of  this  monograph. 

tSee  Section  3  of  act  quoted  in   Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-S9,  Vol.   I.,. 
p.  482. 

\  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  486. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  General  Compulsory  Laws  of  New  England. 

1852-1890. 

The  truancy  law  of  1850  prepared  the  way  for  broader  legislation 
in  Massachusetts.  Accordingly,  two  years  later,  it  was  made  the 
duty  of  every  person  having  under  his  control  a  child  between 
the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen,  to  send  him  to  the  public  schools  of 
the  place  where  he  resided  not  less  than  twelve  weeks  each  year,  if 
the  school  was  in  session  that  long.  Six  weeks  of  this  period  was 
required  to  be  consecutive.  Failure  to  comply  with  these  pro- 
visions made  the  offender  liable  to  a  line,  not  exceeding  twenty 
dollars  for  each  ofifence.  However,  if  it  was  shown  to  either 
the  truant  officers,  or  the  school  committee,  that  the  absence  of  any 
child  from  school  was  due  to  his  having  otherwise  been  provided 
with  the  means  of  education  for  the  same  period  of  time,  or  if 
it  was  due  to  poverty  of  the  parent  or  guardian,  or  to  some  physi- 
cal or  mental  condition  of  the  child  that  would  prevent  his  applica- 
tion to  study,  the  fine  was  not  to  be  incurred.  While  the 
submission  of  proper  evidence  to  either  the  truant  officers  or  the 
school  committee  gave  to  these  officials  the  authority  to  excuse 
from  attendance,  the  enforcement  of  the  law  was  no  part  of  their 
duty.  That  duty  rested  with  the  town  treasurers.*  This  provision 
proved  to  be  a  defect  which  prevented  the  efficient  execution  of  the 
law.  It  is  clearly  evident  that  the  proper  executive  officers  should 
have  been  the  school  committees,  working  through  truant  officers. 
As  it  was,  the  town  treasurers  did  little  or  nothing,  and  from  the 
date  of  its  enactment  until  1873  the  history  of  the  law  is  little  more 
than  a  record  of  failures.      An  attempt  was  made  in  1859  to  remedy 

•General  Statutes,  Chap.  41. 

57 


58  TJie  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

this  defect  by  placing  the  town  treasurers  under  a  penalty  of  twenty 
dollars  for  failure  to  prosecute  after  due  notification  had  been  given 
by  either  the  school  committee  or  the  truant  officers  that  the 
law  had  been  violated.  But  this  failed  to  secure  its  enforcement, 
and  soon  it  practically  became  a  dead  letter. 

It  is  evident  from  the  report  of  General  Oliver,  in  1870,  that  the 
law  was  ignored  ;  and  that  the  provisions  of  the  employment 
and  truancy  acts,  then  in  force,  were  openly  violated.  He  said, 
in  speaking  of  this  law  :  "Nobody  looks  after  it — neither  town 
authorities,  nor  school  committees,  nor  local  police — and  the  large 
cities  and  many  of  the  towns  of  the  state  are  full  of  unschooled 
children,  vagabondizing  about  the  streets  and  growing  up  in  igno- 
rance and  to  a  heritage  of  sin.  The  mills  all  over  the  state,  the 
shops  in  city  and  towns  are  full  of  children  deprived  of  their  right 
to  such  education  as  will  fit  them  for  the  possibilities  of  their  after 
life,  and  nobody  thinks  of  obeying  the  school  laws.  In  fact,  most 
persons  are  ignorant  that  there  is  any  such  law,  so  that  between 
those  so  ignorant  and  those  that  care  for  none  of  these  things, 
we  have  no  right  to  boast  of  compulsory  education  in  Massachu- 
setts."* In  this  same  year,  also,  Superintendent  White  recom- 
mended that  the  legislature  direct  ' '  the  Board  of  Education  or  such 
other  competent  body  as  may  be  deemed  proper  to  take  into  con- 
sideration all  existing  laws  relating  to  school  attendance,  truancy, 
absenteeism,  and  the  employment  of  children  in  manufacturing 
establishments,  and  inquire  what  alterations  and  amendments  are 
needed  to  combine  said  enactments  into  a  uniform,  consistent,  and 
efficient  code  adapted  to  the  present  views  and  wants  of  the 
public."  The  same  recommendation  was  made  by  the  State  Board 
of  Education  the  next  year,  and  as  a  result  the  law  of  1873  was  en- 
acted, f  This  changed  the  period  of  enforced  attendance  from  eight 
to  fourteen  years,  as  provided  in  the  statute  of  1852,  to  that  from 

*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p.  214.  Quoted  there  from  the  Thirty-fourth 
Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  (Massachusetts), 
for  the  year  1870. 

•j- Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1SS8-S9,  Vol.  I.,  p.  474. 


In  Nexi.'  England.  59 

eight  to  twelve  years.  The  reason  of  this  change  can  probably  be 
found  in  the  increased  number  of  weeks  which  each  child  was 
required  to  attend  to  school.  The  required  attendance  was  now 
fixed  at  twenty  weeks  annually.  But  the  most  important  feature  of 
the  new  law  was  the  placing  of  the  responsibility  for  its  execution 
on  the  school  committees.*  Under  the  law  of  1S52,  this  responsi- 
bility had  been  a  divided  one.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  school  com- 
mittees to  make  inquiries  concerning  violations,  and  then  to  report 
them  to  the  town  treasurers,  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  prosecu- 
tions. Now,  prosecutions  were  to  be  made  by  agents  of  the  school 
committees — the  truant  officers. 

This  law  of  1873,  together  with  the  provisions  relating  to  truancy 
and  those  of  the  Employment  Act  of  1876,  made  a  complete  system 
of  obligatory  education.  This  system  continued  in  operation  till 
1889,  when  it  received  several  important  modifications.  The 
general  compulsory  law  of  the  system,  however,  worked  only  fairly 
well.  Mr.  George  A.  Walton,  agent  of  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, says  of  it  in  his  report  of  1886  :  "There  is  one  provision 
in  our  compulsory  laws  which  is  almost  entirely  inoperative  ;  it 
is  the  section  which  imposes  a  fine  upon  the  parent  for  neglecting 
to  send  his  child  to  school  for  twenty  weeks  each  year.  Instances 
of  such  neglect  are  common.  We  often  hear  of  them,  but  seldom 
of  the  parent  paying  the  fine."  f 

By  the  amendments  of  1889,  the  age  limit  to  which  the  law  was 
applicable  was  changed  to  that  of  the  old  statute  of  1852.  The 
period  of  required  attendance  remained  the  same  as  in  1873,  but 
the  time  was  divided  into  two  terms  of  ten  weeks,  each  of  which 
was  required  to  be  consecutive.  The  exemptions  provided  for  non- 
compliance with  these  regulations  were  other  adequate  means  of  in- 
struction, an  already  acquired  knowledge  of  the  subjects  required 
by  law  to  be  taught  in  the  public  schools,  and  such  physical 
and  mental  condition  as  would  render  their  attendance  at  school 


*  Ibid,,  p.  474. 
\Ibid.,  p.  475. 


6o  The  History  of  Compulsory  Edticatioti 

impracticable.  Poverty  was  to  be  no  longer  a  legal  justification  for 
the  non-education  of  children.  This  was  a  step  in  advance,  for  too 
frequently  such  an  exemption  becomes  but  a  cloak  to  cover  the 
greed  or  negligence  of  parents  and  guardians. 

More  important  than  any  of  the  features  of  the  law  that  have 
been  stated  is  the  provision  regulating  private  schools.  Attendance 
at  such  schools  could  be  considered  as  fulfilling  the  requirements  of 
the  law  only  when  they  had  been  approved  by  the  school  commit- 
tees. The  conditions  imposed  for  approval  were  the  teaching  of  all 
the  subjects  required  by  law  in  the  English  language,  equal 
thoroughness  and  elificiency  in  the  teaching  as  that  given  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  place  where  the  private  school  was  located. 
Finally,  it  was  required  that  the  progress  of  the  pupils  in  such 
schools  should  be  equal  to  that  of  those  attending  the  public 
schools  during  the  same  time.* 

On  June  4,  1890,  an  amendment  was  made  extending  the  time  of 
required  attendance  from  twenty  to  thirty  weeks,  if  the  schools 
were  in  session  that  long.  In  other  respects  the  law  remains  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  in  i88g.f  The  law  as  it  stands  is  well 
enforced  and  is  accomplishing  the  purpose  intended.  In  the  school 
year  of  1890-91,  two  hundred  and  twelve  towns,  out  of  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one,  had  an  average  of  over  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  pupils  at  school  every  day ;  and  of  this  number,  eighteen 
had  an  attendance  of  over  ninety-five  per  cent.  Only  eleven 
towns  throughout  the  state  had  an  attendance  below  eighty  per 
cent.  X 

This  law  in  its  requirements  is  similar  to  the  one  passed  by  the 
Prussian  Diet  during  the  same  summer.  The  Prussian  law  is 
of  greater  stringency,  and  makes  the  period  of  required  attendance 
extend  from  the  ages  of  six  to  fourteen.     This  insures  the  child  two 


*  Ibid.,  pp.  4S1-482.     The  law  is  given  in  full. 

t  Fifty-fiftli    Annual    Report    of   the   Board   of   Education    (Massachusetts),    1S90-91,    pp. 
63  and  64. 

Xlbid.     (See  Tables.) 


In  New  England.  6i 

years  more  of  schooling  than  is  required  in  Massachusetts.  The 
penalty  for  non-compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  is  a  fine 
varying  from  ten  pennies  to  one  mark  for  each  day  of  non-attend- 
ance. This  fine  must  be  paid  immediately,  and  if  it  is  not,  the 
convicted  person  may  be  imprisoned  from  three  hours  to  one  day. 
Instead  of  imprisonment,  however,  there  is  a  provision  by  which 
the  delinquent  ' '  may  work  for  the  same  number  of  hours  for  the 
benefit  of  the  community,  each  according  to  his  aptitudes."-'^  Both 
laws  establish  the  conditions  under  which  private  schools  may 
be  attended.  In  Prussia  they  must  be  equal  to  the  public  ele- 
mentary schools,  and  when  they  are  not,  the  inspectors  are  given 
the  authority  to  enforce  the  attendance  of  the  children  at  the  public 
schools,  y 

Just  how  much  of  the  Massachusetts  law  has  been  derived  from 
Prussian  precedent  is  not  clear.  It  is,  however,  probable  that 
from  this  or  other  German  source  the  provision  relating  to  private 
schools  was  obtained.  As  far  back  as  1850,  Prussia  began  to 
exercise  state  control  over  such  schools.  In  the  constitution 
signed  and  sworn  to  by  Frederick  William  IV.,  on  January  31  of 
that  year,  is  the  declaration  that  ' '  all  public  and  private  educa- 
tional institutions  are  under  the  supervision  of  the  state  authori- 
ties.";}; The  example  set  by  Massachusetts  in  this  particular  has 
been  followed  by  several  other  states  of  the  Union.  So  far  as 
Massachusetts  is  concerned,  the  chief  significance  of  this  pro- 
vision lies  in  the  tendency  of  the  state  to  assume  still  greater 
control  over  such  schools.  If  attendance  at  private  schools  is  to  be 
accepted  in  lieu  of  that  at  the  public  schools,  then  the  assumption 
of  greater  authority  by  the  state  is  inevitable  ;  and  the  same 
qualifications,  scholastic  and  professional,  which  it  requires  of  the 
teachers  in  the  public  schools,  ought  and  must  be  required  of  those 

*KIemm's  "  Compulsory  Education  in  Prussia"  in  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  531. 
\Ibid.,  p.  531. 
X  Ibid.,  p.  530 ;  see  Article  23  of  the  constitution. 


62  Tlic  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

in  private  schools.  Only  in  such  a  course  can  the  state  be  just 
to  itself.  In  no  other  way  can  it  guarantee  to  that  class  of  children 
who  attend  such  schools  equal  privileges  as  those  enjoyed  by 
the  children  that  attend  the  public  schools. 

The  present  law  of  Connecticut  had  its  beginning  in  1872.  The 
year  previous,  Dr.  B.  G.  Northrop  went  to  Europe  and  made 
a  study  of  the  working  of  the  compulsory  laws  in  several  countries. 
On  his  return  he  gave  the  results  of  his  investigations  in  his  report 
on  "Obligatory  Education."  This  was  a  strong  factor  in  bringing 
about  the  law  of  1872,  and  it  had  a  decided  influence  in  stimulating 
legislation  in  other  states. 

When  the  bill  for  this  law  was  proposed,  it  contained  a  provision 
exempting  all  parents  whose  ' '  pecuniary  condition  was  such  as  to 
render  the  attendance  of  their  children  inexpedient  or  impracti- 
cable." Before  the  bill  was  passed  by  the  house,  this  provision  was 
struck  out  by  a  unanimous  vote,  and  the  state  was  committed 
to  the  position  that  poverty  shall  not  be  a  just  cause  for  the  depri- 
vation of  any  child  of  educational  advantages.  In  1S71  a  law  had 
been  passed  requiring  all  parents  or  guardians  to  put  their  children 
who  had  been  discharged  from  employment  vmder  the  act  of  1869 
into  school.  At  the  same  time  the  Employment  Act  of  1S69,  and 
the  Truant  Act  of  1865,  which  had  been  modeled  on  the  then  exist- 
ing truant  law  of  Massachusetts,  were  incorporated  with  it.  While 
these  laws  were  applicable  to  all  children,  the  compulsory  system 
was  not  fully  established  until  the  law  of  1872  was  enacted.*  This 
law  has  been  amended  several  times  since  then.  As  it  now  stands 
it  requires  all  parents  or  guardians  having  children  between  the 
ages  of  eight  and  sixteen  to  send  them  "  to  a  public  day  school 
regularly  during  the  hours  and  terms  while  the  public  schools 
in  the  district  wherein  such  child  resides  are  in  session,  "f  If  the 
child  has  received  thorough  instruction  during  "the  hours  and  the 
terms ' '  that  the  public  schools  are  in  session  through  other  means, 


♦Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  18S8-S9,  Vol.  I.,  p.  487. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  48S.     (The  law  is  quoted  in  full.) 


In  Neiv  England.  63 

then  he  is  excused  from  attendance  upon  the  public  schools. 
Neither  is  this  provision  applicable  to  children  who  have  attended 
school  twenty-four  weeks  of  the  preceding-  twelve  months,  nor 
to  children  who  are  between  thirteen  and  fourteen,  and  who  have 
attended  twelve  weeks  during  that  period  and  who  are  legitimately- 
employed  to  labor  at  home  or  elsewhere.  Children  who  are  over 
fourteen  years  of  age  and  are  lawfully  employed  are  also  excused. 
The  penalty  fixed  for  each  week's  failure  to  comply  with  these  pro- 
visions is  a  fine  of  not  more  than  five  dollars.  Like  the  Massachu- 
setts law  there  is  a  provision  regulating  private  schools,  but  it  is 
less  rigid  in  its  requirements.  Attendance  at  such  schools  is 
sufficient  only  when  the  persons  who  have  control  of  them  keep 
a  register  of  the  attendance  of  all  scholars  in  ' '  the  form  and 
manner  prescribed  by  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  the  public 
schools."  During  the  regular  school  hours  this  register  must 
be  open  for  the  inspection  of  the  secretary  and  the  agents  of  the 
Board  of  Education.*  The  great  defect  of  this  provision  is  the 
want  of  any  requirements  relative  to  the  character  of  the  instruction 
given  in  these  schools.  The  state  seems  to  regard  it  as  sufficient 
that  children  attend  such  schools  without  giving  any  heed  as 
to  whether  the  instruction  given  in  them  will  compare  favorably 
with  that  given  in  the  public  schools.  This  makes  the  pro- 
vision manifestly  much  weaker  in  point  of  efificiency  than  that  of  the 
Massachusetts  law.  The  provision  is  probably  sufificient  to  enable 
the  state  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  attendance  requirements 
are  complied  with.  It  does  more  than  this.  The  provision  giving 
the  state  authority  to  inspect  the  registers  of  such  schools,  and  that 
requiring  reports  relative  to  their  conditions  from  the  ' '  teacher.s  or 
persons  who  control  them"  fully  establishes  the  principle  of  the 
right  of  the  state  to  interfere  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  education 
of  its  youth,  and  may  serve  as  an  excellent  precedent  for  more 
exacting  regulations. 

The  provisions  for  the  execution  of  the  law  are  much  better  than 

*Ibid.,  p.  488. 


64  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

in  Massachusetts.  In  the  latter  state  this  is  done  through  local 
authorities.  In  Connecticut  the  law  is  administered  directly  by  the 
state.  In  1888  four  agents  of  the  State  Board  of  Education 
were  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  law.  In  most  instances 
the  local  authorities  have  cooperated  with  these,  but  it  is  seldom 
they  take  the  initiative.  In  i88g  the  local  authorities  in  but  three 
towns  out  of  fifty  acted.*  The  law  is  unremittingly  enforced,  and 
because  of  this  proves  itself  efficient. 

In  the  other  states  there  is  not  the  same  efficiency  as  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  Legislation  on  this  subject  in 
Maine  began  in  1875.  However,  as  early  as  1850  a  law  had 
been  enacted  looking  toward  compulsory  attendance.  Section 
13  of  this  statute  authorized  towns  to  make  "such  by-laws,  not 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  the  state,  concerning  habitual  truants 
and  children  between  six  and  seventeen  years  of  age  not  attending 
school,  without  any  regular  and  lawful  occupation,  and  growing  up 
in  ignorance,  as  are  most  conducive  to  their  welfare  and  the  good 
order  of  society  ;  and  may  annex  a  suitable  penalty,  not  exceeding 
twenty  dollars,  for  any  breach  thereof ;  but  said  by-laws  must 
be  first  approved  by  a  judge  of  the  supreme  judicial  court,  "f  This 
law  availed  but  little.  It  was  not  a  positive  mandate  of  the  state 
for  the  eradication  of  ignorance,  but  left  to  each  locality  the  solu- 
tion of  the  question  whether  all  the  children  should  be  entitled 
to  school  privileges.  The  statute  of  1875  was  a  decided  improve- 
ment, yet  it  was  very  defective.  By  its  provisions  parents  were  re- 
quired to  send  their  children  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  fifteen 
years  to  either  a  public  or  private  school  for  a  term  of  not  less  than 
twelve  weeks  in  each  year.  For  non-compliance,  parents  were 
to  be  fined  live  dollars,  and  boys  who  neglected  or  refused  to 
attend  school  forfeited  the  same  amount.  If  children  had  been 
taught  at  home,  or  if  the  physical  or  mental  health  of  the  child  was 
such  as  to  render  attendance  at  school  impracticable,  or  if  the  child 

*  Connecticut  School  Report,  1S89,  p.  44. 

t  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p.  204. 


In  New  England.  65 

lived  farther  than  one  and  a  half  miles  "by  the  shortest  traveled 
road  from  any  school"  attendance  at  school  was  not  required. 
The  execution  of  this  law  devolved  on  the  school  committees 
and  the  supervisors.* 

It  seems  that  but  little  good  resulted  from  this  statute.  Perhaps 
this  was  due  to  its  inefificient  execution.  State  Superintendent 
Luce  said  of  it,  in  1887,  "I  know  that  its  enforcement  was 
generally  found  to  be  impracticable  whenever  any  supervisor  who 
sought  to  enforce  it  in  some  aggravated  case  of  absenteeism  came 
to  the  question  of  ways  and  means,  "f  A  substitute  for  this  statute 
was  enacted  in  1887.  This  required  every  person  "having  under 
his  control  a  child  between  eight  and  fifteen  years  of  age  to  send  it 
to  a  public  school  sixteen  weeks  each  year,  divided  as  far  as 
possible  into  two  terms  of  eight  weeks  each,  unless  it  has  been 
instructed  elsewhere  or  labors  under  some  bodily  or  mental  dis- 
ability. Any  one  not  complying  is  to  forfeit  not  more  than  twenty- 
five  dollars.  Cities  and  towns  are  required  to  elect  truant  officers, 
who  are  to  enforce  this  law."  The  neglect  of  any  city,  town, 
or  truant  officer  to  comply  with  these  provisions  was  made  punish- 
able by  a  fine  of  from  ten  to  fifty  dollars.  Provisions  were  also 
made  for  committing  boys  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  fifteen  years 
to  the  State  Reform  School  if  they  should  be  found  wandering 
about  the  streets  during  school  hours  ;  "  but  if  satisfactory  pledges 
are  obtained  from  him  or  the  person  having  him  in  charge  that  in 
the  future  he  will  conform  to  the  requirements,  he  shall  not  be 
prosecuted  so  long  as  the  pledges  are  faithfully  kept."  State 
Superintendent  Luce  wrote  the  Bureau  of  Education  at  Wash- 
ington, January  28,  1890,  regarding  this  law  as  follows  :  "As  to  its 
efficiency  in  securing  the  ends  desired,  the  result  depends  largely 
upon  the  activity  and  efficiency  of  truant  officers,  and  this  upon  the 
countenance  and  interest  of  the  communities  of  the  towns  of 
the  state.      In  many  cities  and  towns  the  increase  of  average  at- 


*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  18S8-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  517. 
t  Ibid. 


66  The  History  of  Compjilsory  Education 

tendance  has  been  marked  ;  in  others  httle  change  has  been 
discernible.  The  passage  of  the  law  has  been  too  recent  to  de- 
cide upon  the  actual  or  prospective  results  to  be  secured  by  its 
general  enforcement."* 

In  1867  an  attempt  was  made  in  Vermont  to  compel  the  attend- 
ance at  school  of  all  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
fourteen.  Three  years  later  an  amendment  having  particular 
reference  to  its  enforcement  was  made  ;  but  it  seems  to  have 
been  inoperative  and  soon  became  obsolete.  In  1888  the  law  was 
entirely  remodeled.  Originally  the  period  of  obligatory  attendance 
had  been  twelve  weeks;  this  was  now  extended  to  twenty.  Another 
excellent  provision  made  illiterate  children  under  fourteen  years  of 
-age  ineligible  for  employment  while  the  public  schools  were  in 
session,  t  The  weak  feature  of  the  law  was  a  provision  virtually 
making  the  initiation  of  proceedings  depend  on  the  complaint 
of  "three  voters  in  the  district."  The  commissioner  of  educa- 
tion is  undoubtedly  right  when  he  says  of  this  provision,  "All 
experience  goes  to  show  that  the  complaints  of  voters  or  taxpayers 
have  never  yet  set  in.  motion  the  machinery  for  enforcing  a  com- 
pulsory law. "J  The  law  seems  to  have  failed  to  accomplish  its 
purpose.  At  any  rate,  the  report  of  the  state  superintendent 
for  1890  reveals  the  fact  that  out  of  38,000  children  between 
the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen,  2,600  were  not  in  school  at  any 
time  during  the  year;  and  many  who  had  enrolled  failed  to  meet 
the  time  requirements.  || 

New  Hampshire  made  provisions  for  obligatory  attendance  in 
1871.  A  truant  law,  however,  had  been  passed  about  twenty  years 
before  this.§  The  statute  of  1871  ^  required  of  all  children  between 
■the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  who  resided  within  two  miles   of 

*  3id. 

t  See  summary  of  the  law  in  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1S88-S9,  Vol.  I.,  p.  513. 
X  Ibid. 

II  Vermont  School  Report,  1890,  p.  314. 
^  §  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-89,  P-  5i3- 
1  Approved  July  14. 


1)1  Nezv  England.  67 

a  public  school,  twelve  weeks'  attendance,  six  weeks  of  which  were 
to  be  consecuti\'e.  The  board  of  education  or  the  "superintending- 
school  committee  of  such  district"  could  excuse  because  of  the 
physical  or  mental  ills  of  the  child,  or  if  it  was  shown  that  "such 
child  was  instructed  in  a  private  school,  or  at  home,  for  at  least 
twelve  weeks  during  such  year,  in  the  branches  of  education  re- 
quired to  be  taught  in  the  public  schools,  or  having  acquired  those 
branches,  in  other  more  advanced  studies."  For  violation  of  these 
provisions,  a  fine  of  ten  dollars  was  to  be  assessed  for  the  first,  and  of 
twenty  dollars  ' '  for  each  subsequent  offence,  to  be  recovered  as  in 
an  action  of  debt."  Furthermore,  a  penalty  was  attached  for  the 
non-execution  of  the  law  by  the  school  officers. ^^  In  1878  a  general 
factory  law  had  been  passed,  f  Three  years  later  amendments  were 
made  prohibiting  the  employment  of  a  child  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  during  the  time  the  school  was  in  session,  in  any  manufacturing 
establishment,  unless  he  had  attended  school  at  least  twelve  weeks 
in  the  preceding  year,  or  unless  he  could  write  legibly,  and  could 
' '  read  fluently  in  readers  of  the  grade  usually  classed  as  third 
readers."  If  the  child  so  employed  was  under  fourteen,  he 
was  required  to  have  attended  school  in  the  district  where  he 
resided  for  at  least  six  months  in  the  preceding  school  year  if 
the  school  was  in  session  that  long,  if  not  then  he  must  have  been 
in  attendance  during  the  entire  session.  The  penalty  for  the 
employment  of  children  under  other  conditions  than  these  was 
fixed  at  twenty  dollars  for  each  offence.]:  Relative  to  the  en- 
forcement and  the  efficiency  of  these  statutes  the  commissioner 
of  education  in  his  report  for  1888-89  ||  says:  "No  information 
can  be  obtained  that  the  compulsory  clauses  of  the  above  law§  have 
been  enforced.      The  state  reports  of  recent  years  contain  scarcely  a 

*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p.  281. 

fSee  General  Laws  of  New  Hampsliire,  1878  ;  Sections  11  and  12,  Chap.  91. 
t  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1882-83,  P-  XXXIII.     See  also  Report  of  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  513. 
II  Vol.  I.,  p.  514. 
\  Law  of  1871. 


68  The  History  of  Compulsory  Education 

reference  to  the  matter.  Superintendent  Folsom,  of  Dover,  says  : 
'  I  have  never  heard  of  a  case  of  a  suit  of  this  kind  in  this  state. 
I  have  had  reason  to  beHeve  that  there  have  been,  and  are 
now,  many  children  in  this  city  whose  parents  are  Hable  to  the  pen- 
alties prescribed  by  Section  i8,  though  no  legal  complaint  has  ever 
been  made  to  me.'  "*  In  speaking  of  the  enforcement  of  the 
efificiency  of  the  employment  laws.  Superintendent  Folsom  says  : 
' '  I  find  an  impression  quite  prevalent  that  these  laws  are  a  dead 
letter  with  employers  of  children  in  this  city.  Whether  or  not  this 
impression  is  correct,  I  have  no  means  of  knowing  officially,  as  no 
taxpayer  has  ever  made  written  complaint,  and  the  law  gives 
no  authority  for  an  investigation." 

As  far  back  as  1854,  Rhode  Island  enacted  a  law  forbidding  the 
employment  of  a  child  under  fifteen  years  of  age  in  any  factory  un- 
less such  child  had  attended  school  for  at  least  three  months  in  the 
year  preceding  that  in  which  he  was  employed.  The  law  further 
provided  that  such  a  child  should  not  be  employed  for  a  longer 
period  than  nine  months  in  each  year.  The  penalty  for  the  viola- 
tion of  these  provisions  by  either  the  employers  or  guardian  of  the 
child  was  twenty  dollars  for  each  offence,  f  This  law  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  rigidly  enforced.  Even  if  it  was,  it  was  not  suf- 
ficient in  itself  to  drive  out  illiteracy.  In  1870,  5,014  children 
in  the  state  were  not  in  school  during  the  year.  This  number 
was  nearly,  thirteen  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  children 
between  five  and  fifteen  years  of  age.|  Commissioner  Bicknell  in 
his  report  for  this  year  estimates  the  number  of  children  who  were 
unable  to  read  and  write  at  nearly  ten  thousand.  Some  of  these 
were  at  work  in  the  factories.  ||  This  would  seem  to  be  sufficient 
evidence  that  the  factory  law  had  fallen  into  disrepute.     Probably  it 

*  Quoted  from  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  School  Report,  1887,  p.  22. 

t  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1882-83,  p.  XXXIV. 

t  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p.  336.  The  facts  given  in  this  report  are 
based  on  the  report  of  Hon.  Thomas  W.  Bicknell  for  the  year  ending  May  i,  1S70.  Mr. 
Bicknell  was  not  at  this  time  commissioner  of  education  in  Rhode  Island. 

i  Ibid. 


In  New  England.  69 

nc\'er  met  with  general  favor.  These  evils  were  not  remedied  until 
the  law  of  1883  was  passed.  The  census  of  1880  showed  to  the 
people  that  in  Rhode  Island,  in  proportion  to  its  population,  was  a 
larger  number  of  illiterates  than  in  any  other  northern  state.  Here 
the  per  cent  of  illiteracy  was  eleven  and  two  tentlis  while  the  aver- 
age for  all  the  other  Northern  States  was  less  than  si.x.^^  The  reason 
of  this  must  in  part  be  attributed  to  the  inoperation  of  the  factory 
law.  During  the  decade  preceding  this  census,  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  had  stringent  employment  acts  which  were  well  en- 
forced, f  Rhode  Island  thus  became  an  inviting  field  to  parents 
who  opposed  these  restrictions.  The  want  of  restrictions  in  the 
employment  of  children  in  factories  brought  to  the  state  a  large 
foreign  and  illiterate  population.  Of  the  total  population  in  1870, 
nearly  thirty-seven  per  cent  wer-e  of  foreign  parentage.  A  large 
proportion  of  these  could  neither  read  nor  write.  %  The  number  of 
this  class  increased  during  the  decade  following  1870. 

A  full  knowledge  of  the  evil  as  revealed  by  the  census  of  1880 
led  to  measures  for  its  eradication.  State  Superintendent  Thomas 
B.  Stockwell  wrote  in  1882  :  "Already  different  localities  have 
begun  to  move  in  the  matter,  and  seek  for  means  of  self-protection, 
so  far  as  they  can  be  provided  under  existing  laws.  The  city  of 
Newport  has  already  passed  a  truant  ordinance,  and  several  of  the 
towns  are  considering  the  question."  ||  In  the  next  year  a  com- 
pulsory attendance  law  was  enacted.  Incorporated  with  this  were 
provisions  relating  to  the  employment  of  children  and  to  truancy. 
Beneficial  results  were  experienced  almost  immediately.  During 
the  school  year  of  1882-83,  the  per  cent  of  enrolled  pupils  to 
youth  of  school  age  was  73.07.  This  rose  during  the  next  year  to 
77.54  per  cent.  The  average  daily  attendance  increased  from 
48.89  per  cent  to  77.54  per  cent  during  the  same  time.§     The 

*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  501. 

tSee  Chapter  III. 

X  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p.  336. 

II  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  188S-89,  Vol.  I.,  p.  501. 

?  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1883-84,  p.  42. 


70  The  History  of  Compiilsory  Education 

secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  did  not  attribute  this  improve- 
ment entirely  to  the  compulsory  law.  He  says  "  that  it  was  much 
more  the  result  of  better  teaching,  increased  attractiveness  in  the 
schools,  and  wider  interest  in  education."*  Possibly  the  reason 
for  this  ' '  better  teaching,  increased  attractiveness  in  the  schools, 
and  wider  interest  in  education"  may  be  found  in  the  evil  con- 
ditions revealed  by  the  census  of  1880.  The  eradication  of  these 
conditions  was  the  purpose  of  the  compulsory  law,  and  it  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  within  a  year  after  its  enactment  the  schools  were 
in  better  condition  than  ever  before  in  their  history.  It  is  true  that 
in  some  parts  of  the  state  the  law  was  not  rigorously  enforced.  In 
Providence  it  was  ignored.  In  other  parts,  not  infrequently,  there 
were  political  reasons  for  not  complying  with  its  provisions. 

The  law  of  1883  was  revised  four  years  later.  The  chief  changes 
effected  were  the  imposition  of  a  penalty  upon  cities  and  towns 
that  failed  to  comply  with  the  law,  the  transfer  of  jurisdiction  to  the 
district  courts  from  the  justice  courts  of  the  towns  which  had 
formerly  had  it,  and,  finally,  the  including  of  telegraph  and 
telephone  companies  and  mercantile  establishments  in  the  field  of 
forbidden  labor.  The  enforcement  of  the  law  has  not  been  as 
rigorous  as  its  friends  had  hoped  for  it.  Still  it  has  accomplished 
great  good.  The  results  it  has  accomplished  have  won  friends  for 
it  and  fully  justify  an  obligatory  system.  In  his  report  for  1889, 
Superintendent  Stockwell  says:  "While  the  law  is  enforced  in 
very  different  degrees  in  different  localities,  still  it  is  coming  to  be 
a  recognized  factor  in  nearly  every  town.  There  are  but  six 
towns  that  do  not  report  some  work  under  the  law,  and  in  most  of 
those  towns  it  is  probable  that  there  was  really  no  occasion  for  the 
service  of  a  truant  ofificer. ' '  j 


The    obligatory   provisions    of    New    England,    as    they   are    at 

•  Ibid. 

t  Rhode  Island  School  Report,  1889,  pp.  ni   and  112.     Quoted  here  from  the  Report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Education,  188S-S9,  \'ol.  I.,  p.  503. 


In  Neiv  England.  71 

present,  have  changed  in  pruicii)le  since  the  colonial  era.  As  the 
various  statutes  now  stand  they  constitute  a  species  of  class  legisla- 
tion. The  provisions  relating  to  the  employment  of  children  and 
to  truancy  clearly  evidence  this.  It  is  true  that  the  general  laws, 
like  the  old  colonial  provisions  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
are  applicable  throughout  the  commonwealths.  In  colonial  times, 
such  legislation  was  but  an  amplification  of  the  principle  of 
universal  education.  Its  purpose  was  preventive  rather  than 
remedial.  The  present  general  compulsory  laws  have  the  same 
design  ;  but  in  the  class  legislation  referred  to,  especially  that 
relating"  to  truancy,  the  purpose  is  remedial.  Its  design  is  the 
correction  of  existing  evils,  and  the  conversion  of  the  youth 
belonging  to  what  is  known  as  the  "dangerous  and  perishing 
classes ' '  into  good  citizens.  Such  legislation  is  but  a  guarantee 
of  the  rights  of  the  children  of  the  state  to  be  brought  up  under 
other  than  corrupting  influences,  and  of  the  right  to  be  so  educated 
and  trained  as  shall  enable  them  to  become  honorable  and  useful 
citizens.  It  is  in  these  rights,  in  that  Lutheran  principle  "the 
safety  of  the  state  depends  on  an  intelligent  citizenship,"  and  in. 
history  that  such  legislation  finds  a  complete  justification. 


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